Jaune's Multiverse Theory
by BookishTen8
Summary: Not many would think that Jaune Arc would be of any importance to the universe. His grades are low, his combat skill is nonexistent and he only got into Beacon because he cheated and lied. Yet, everyone is taken away from their universe to watch different versions of Jaune Arc. Will this not only change their perspective of Jaune but change the upcoming future?
1. Prologue

**Author's Note: There has been a good few of these lately and I thought, why not make one of my own? So here we are. If there isn't a cast member of RWBY watching, it's because they're either irrelevant or I simply don't like them. Btw, I don't like Sun.**

 **The Multiverse will be of movies, TV shows and games in which Jaune replaces a certain character. The rest of the RWBY cast will be in them as well but not everyone will be replaced. I won't include scenes that do little for the plot.**

 **This takes place after the breach in Vale.**

 **If you have any suggestions, message me because I won't be reading the reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

Ruby Rose will admit to anyone who asks that she tends to have the oddest of dreams at times. Dreams that revolve around Zwei growing to the size of a mountain, Grimm changing to the colour pink for some reason or her all time favourite, when cookies started to rain down from the sky. However, she's positive that her current dream beats them all in comparison. After all, why would she find herself in a theatre of sorts with the rest of her team, team (J)NPR, Ozpin, Ms. Goodwitch, uncle Qrow, Emerald, Roman and a few more people she doesn't recognize.

Odd, she doesn't even remember falling asleep.

"Where the hell are we?" asked Yang, looking around in confusion like everyone else. After making sure that Ruby is safe by her side, her eyes catch sight of a certain someone who she has been searching for, for most of her young life. " _Mom?!"_

"Sis?" muttered Qrow, blinking at the sight of seeing his rogue sister. He looks at the flask in his hand and sighs, believing that he has drunk too much again and is now hallucinating. Those moments always leave him with an annoying hangover in the morning.

"What on Remnant is going on?!" exclaimed Roman Torchwick who suddenly finds himself in a theatre room with several law-abiding Huntsmen and Huntresses, as well as those annoying brats who have been wrecking his plans for quite a while. Last he checked, he was taken prisoner by the Atlesian military after planting the breach in the centre of Vale. A glance to his right and he sees that Cinder is there with him and is equally as confused as he is. Unfortunately, those two followers of hers are by her side as well. Luckily, Neo is by his own side, although she's as perplexed as everyone else.

"Oz, got any ideas on where we are?" asked Ironwood, tensing up and surveying the theatre room. Behind them are rows of seats that one would find if going to the theatre but he can't see any exit by the wall behind them. In front of them looks to be a giant screen which looks time be turned off while on the sidewalls are white shelves with crystals of sorts on them.

"I'm not seeing any doors" muttered Glynda, making sure to watch out for her students. How on Remnant did she get from her office to this room without her even noticing?

"How odd" muttered Ozpin, still holding his coffee cup. He's positive that he was just in his office a second ago but now, he's trapped in what looks to be an odd theatre room. He also notices that he is without his weapon. He isn't completely defence-less without it but he would prefer to have it on him.

"I've never seen Dust crystals like these before" muttered Weiss who has moved to the left wall to gaze at the hundreds, if not thousands of crystals that are resting on the shelves. Being the heiress of the Schnee Dust Company, Weiss has studied Dust and its properties for most of her life. There's rarely any sort of Dust she doesn't recognize or know of, so it's quite a surprise to her when she fails to recognize the crystals in front of her. From what she can see, there are only four types of crystals with a different range of colours that she hasn't seen on any other Dust crystal before. There are blue crystals that lack the usual cold temperature from Ice Dust, red crystals that lack the heat from Fire Dust and odd orange crystals in which she has never seen before. She notices that in some of the orange crystals, there is a light shade of blue or red in the centre of them. The fourth crystal is the oddest of them all. Weiss has seen and heard of many different types of Dust but she's sure that she hasn't ever heard of violet Dust before and yet, she can see several crystals that are coloured a deep shade of violet. She can only imagine what sort of element they hold.

"Look, there's more shelves behind them" pointed out Nora as she peeks in through the gap of a shelf. From what she can see, there are rows upon rows of more shelves behind the first with even more crystals! She actually can't see where they end. The same can be said when looking up as there doesn't seem to be an end of the shelves which fade in the shadows of the ceiling. She can only guess that there's an actual ceiling, only because there isn't any sign of a sun or moon up there.

Always the one to watch out for the hyper Huntress-in-training, Ren gently pulls Nora away from the crystals. If they are Dust crystals like he suspects, he doesn't want Nora anywhere near them. The last time she got free reign over Dust, she blew Jaune through a wall!

"Roman!" hissed Blake, noticing the criminal who has been aiding the White Fang for the past few months. She reaches over her shoulder for her weapon, only to grasp air. Her eyes widen when she doesn't feel Gambol Shroud on her back. "Gambol Shroud is missing!"

"So are Ember Cecila" replied Yang, having noticed them missing from her forearms. She has just been training with them so there should be no reason for why they're missing. Everyone begins to figure out that they're weaponry are missing and many are quickly annoyed over this revelation, except for Cinder and Ozpin as they don't need weaponry to be dangerous. A certain redhead with an odd love for her weapon is taking this revelation a lot worse than others.

"My baby!"

Pyrrha ignores Ruby's outburst and remains calm until she starts to look around the room and notices that a certain someone is missing. "Where's Jaune!?" she asked, worried for her partner and _secret_ crush. Why is everyone from team JNPR here but not their leader?

"I wouldn't worry too much about Jaune Arc."

All eyes turn to the source of the new voice and what they see catches quite a few of them off guard. Floating in front of them is a mysterious figure in a black cloak, hovering a few feet in the air. He lacks any noticeable features since he cloak covers him from head-to-toe, hiding his features from them all. They can't even see his hands because the sleeves of his cloak are so long that they almost touch the floor when he drops his arms to his side. Several are unsettled over the man's lack of legs as he is floating in midair, lacking the required appendages.

Several of the professional Hunters, including Roman and Cinder tense up, due to not seeing the mysterious figure, even when he's directly in front of them all.

 _"I didn't even sense him"_ thought Ozpin, weary of the mysterious individual. Being almost a millennia old, he has mastered and perfected his skills as a Huntsman, including the ability to sense people. The fact that this person has somehow avoided his detection and appeared in front of everyone without their notice means that he is not someone to be trifled with.

"What do you mean? Where is Jaune and who are you?" demanded Pyrrha while glaring at the floating individual.

"Who's this Jaune fellow?" Roman whispered to Neo, only for his silent partner to shrug her shoulders.

Cinder narrows her eyes in distaste. One second, she's in her room at Beacon, preparing her plans with her subordinates and the next, she finds herself locked in a room with people she would prefer dead than alive. She would've liked to **interrogate** the mysterious figure but seeing as Ozpin and his group are here with her, she holds herself back. The last thing she needs is for Ozpin to realize that she holds half of the Fall Maiden's power.

The floating person's head tilts to the side while gazing at the redhead. This unnerves Pyrrha as she feels goosebumps tickle across her arms and legs from his gaze alone. Something is definitely not right with him but thankfully, he decides to answer her question. "My name is of little benefit to you. However, if you all require to call me by name, you may call me, Spectre. And for your first question, Jaune Arc and the rest of your universe are currently indisposed of at the moment."

Spectre turn around and waves a hidden hand towards the large screen which turns it on, showing Jaune Arc in one of the training rooms at Beacon, Crocea Mors at the ready. What catches everyone's attention is how he isn't moving at all. Lines appear across the screen and divides it into two dozen smaller screens which show scenes from all across Vale and Beacon, revealing the daily lives of everyone but just like Jaune, they aren't moving.

"I think you left the pause button on" pointed out Ruby.

"I don't think he paused the screen, Rubes" muttered Yang with wide eyes.

"He stopped time" gasped Raven in awe. She may possess the power of a Maiden but not even she can hope to accomplish such an... _**impossible**_ feat!

"Correct" nodded Spectre.

Practically everyone stares at the screen and Spectre in awe, suspicion and even fear. Anyone who can stop the flow of time is definitely someone to watch out for. Spectre instructs them all to take a seat which they do, even if some of them are more reluctant to do so.

"Are you a god?" asked Nora with a wide and excited grin on her face. Who else can possibly have the awesome powers to stop time? She can't wait to tell Jaune when she gets back to Beacon.

"That's ridiculous" denied Weiss. She isn't much of a religious person but Weiss highly doubts that the person in front of them is an actual god. Gods are suppose to be beautiful, majestic and powerful. Not creepy and mysterious like the person in front of her.

Spectre raises his sleeves to his chin, taking a thinking pose. "I wouldn't exactly call myself a god."

Weiss turns to Nora with a triumphant smirk. "Told you."

"I'd see myself as something much **bigger** than a simple god."

"What?!"

"How so?" asked Ozpin, interested in what Spectre means by being bigger than a god. Before he split his magical powers and transferred them into the Maidens, Ozpin had been praised as a god once upon a time but back then, people were much more archaic than modern times. It was because of that praise and worship that made him move and live alone in seclusion for most of his life, only for the first generation of Maidens to convince him to leave his sad and lonely life. It was because of their kindness for him that he granted them his powers, making them four of most powerful individuals on Remnant.

Spectre raises his left arm towards the shelves of crystals by one wall. "There are beings with tremendous power in every universe. With their abilities to wipe out planets and cause mass genocide, they were unrivaled by many and given the prestigious title of gods. Afterwards, the weaker life forms began to either bow to or fear the gods of their universe."

Chills crawl up many spines in the room, many imagining what someone with bad intentions could do with that sort of power. Cinder can't help but feel a little bit jealous. Being a Maiden is one thing but having the power to destroy planets sounds too good to be true.

Nora has stars in her eyes, imagining how awesome it would be to have that much power. "I could break... so many legs" she muttered, giggling to herself while Ren sighs from the seat by her right.

"Unlike them, I am unrivaled by all. For there is no higher being than I. While many claim to be gods, all of them lack the necessary power to destroy or rebuild a universe on a whim" admitted Spectre, awing many by the power he holds. "Each crystal you see before you is only one of the infinite amount of universes that I watch over."

"So, you're telling us that each crystal here is actually a whole universe in itself?" asked Emerald in disbelief. How can an entire universe fit into such small containers?

"Correct. Each crystal holds a different universe with infinite possibilities. In other universes, there are creatures that are far more dangerous than any Grimm that can be found on your planet,..."

 _"Isn't that a wonderful thought"_ thought Mercury, dryly while imagining what could possibly be worse than the worldwide threat of Grimm.

"...people lack the protection of Aura..."

 _"Then how could humanity survive without Aura?"_ wondered Glynda, knowing that without Aura, humanity would have gone extinct years ago.

"...and Dust may not even exist."

"Impossible!" exclaimed Weiss, standing up from her seat. Fearing that her partner will insult the godlike entity, Ruby tries to pull her partner back down to her chair but Weiss shrugs the hand away. "Dust is the bloodline of Remnant. Without it, we couldn't power our vehicles, weapons or even the lights in our own homes."

Only the most experienced Huntsmen and Huntresses in the room can feel the slight increase of pressure in the room. It's so small that the students don't realize it's there but to some like Ozpin, Qrow, Raven and Cinder, they can surely feel it. "Ms. Schnee, I have learned a long time ago that nothing is impossible. What you say is impossible in your universe, it's possible in others."

Glynda can tell by a glance that Weiss is preparing to continue her tirade and preferring that this godlike figure doesn't kill one of her students in annoyance, she uses her Semblance to force the Schnee heiress back into her chair. A quick glare is plenty enough to silence her but Glynda can tell that her student isn't happy about it.

Qrow cracks his neck and sighs. "That's all well and good but why are we actually here? I hardly doubt you brought us all here to explain to us about Multiverses or whatnot."

Spectre chuckles, finding amusement in Qrow's question. "I've brought you all hear because you all play a big role for your universe's upcoming future. Either it be for good..." Spectre glances at team RWBY and (J)NPR. "...or the bad..." He glances at Cinder and her allies. "...or what's in between." This time, Spectre looks down at Ozpin and his allies. This has each of them wince and Qrow shrug in nonchalance.

Blake frowns while she looks around the audience, making sure to glare at Roman and his little sidekick. Roman puffs out a ring of smoke from the cigar in his mouth while Neo waves at the Faunus with a bloodthirsty smile on her face. Silently hissing at the pair, she looks to Spectre who was watching the interaction play out. "Where's Sun? Why isn't he here with us?" As annoying as her fellow Faunus can be, Sun has proven to be a skilled and helpful comrade in her fight against the White Fang. She would expect her fellow Faunus to be here with them.

"Yea and where's Neptune?" asked Weiss, folding her arms across her chest.

Spectre's shoulders moves in a shrug. "Neither Sun Wukong or Neptune Vasilias have any impact of importance in your universe's future. Therefore, I didn't bring them."

Blake's hidden ears flatten on top of her head. "Really?" she asked, having expected the monkey Faunus to be of some importance in the future. Does that mean that he doesn't help her against the White Fang in the future or does her plans fail in the end?

"Aww, does someone miss their boyfriend" cooed Yang while pinching her partner's cheek. She laughs when Blake slaps her hand away and glares.

Pyrrha frowns. "But what of Jaune?" she asked to the godlike figure.

Before Spectre can answer, Weiss interrupts him with a scoff. "As if that idiot has any say in the future, other than accidentally falling on his own sword."

 _"That child is starting to annoy me"_ thought Raven, wishing that she had her sword to cut down the heiress. She could use her Maiden powers but that would reveal to Ozpin that she is the Spring Maiden. That would only drag her back into that pointless war between him and Salem and that's the last thing she wants.

Nora glares at Weiss, thinking about the possibility of breaking the heiress's legs and getting away with it. Beside her, Ren is thinking about the possibility of sicking Nora on Weiss and getting away with it.

Pyrrha glares at the heiress, wondering if she even understands what she has. Ever since the start of the year, Jaune has only had eyes on Weiss, even though all the heiress does is belittle his efforts. Pyrrha has hoped that she managed to provide her leader a hint about her own affection for him but two weeks have passed since the dance and so far, nothing has changed. She fears that a confession in itself will be the only way to get through her crush's block of a head.

They aren't the only ones who find themselves annoyed as the Spectre suddenly launches himself at Weiss and stops in front of her face. Weiss's eyes widen as she stares into the endless darkness that hides the face of Spectre. She may not be able to see them but she can _feel_ Spectre's eyes glaring a hole through her skull.

"You fail to realize Jaune Arc's importance to the Multiverse, Ms. Schnee" said Spectre and while his voice sounds calm and composed, they can all feel the power he is holding back. He floats back to his usual place, much to the relief of Weiss who drops to her seat in a cold sweat. "The reason for why Jaune Arc isn't here with us is because he is the sole person who can shape the future to any shape he wants. Bringing him here could have unfortunate and lasting consequences in your universe. That must be avoided at all cost."

"WHAT!?" Is the response of many in the room, Cinder's being the loudest.

"Really? Jaune's that important?" asked Pyrrha who smiles to Spectre's nod. She has always known that Jaune has a lot of potential in him. She just didn't think he had _that_ much potential.

"While you all play a big part in shaping your world's future, Jaune Arc remains to be in the centre of it" answered Spectre, having many to think of the young Huntsman-in-training.

 _"Wow. Kid must got some serious talent"_ thought Qrow, taking a sip of his flask. He'd like to meet this kid when they get back to Beacon.

 _"Interesting. Looks like I'll need to keep a closer eye on Mr. Arc"_ thought Ozpin, sipping on his cup of coffee while happy that he decided to give the Arc heir a chance at Beacon, even after recognizing the boy's fake transcripts. Who knows, he could possibly be the key to defeating Salem, once and for all.

 _"Mr. Arc is the centre of our universe? I would've never guessed"_ thought Glynda. While Jaune's skill as a fighter has been growing over the past few months, he still remains as the weakest among her students. She can't imagine the thought of him somehow making an huge difference in the future.

 _"This Arc child could prove useful for the tribe"_ thought Raven, folding her arms across her chest. Anyone that can decide on the future of the entire planet must be strong. That strength can prove useful for her and the tribe.

 _"Jaune Arc. I'll have to inform Salem when I get the chance"_ thought Cinder, gaining an interest of the Arc child. Who knows, she might just be able to convince him to change his loyalties and work for herself.

 _"I knew fearless leader was awesome!"_ thought Nora who's almost jumping on her seat in excitement.

 _"Jaune can do that? COOL!"_ squealed Ruby, full of the same amount of excitement as Nora.

 _"This must be one bad joke"_ groaned Weiss, wondering what she has done to have her entire viewpoint fall apart. She refuses to believe that the same buffoon who has been asking her out on dates since the start of the year has any say in deciding the future of Remnant. If so, the world will end up in ruins!

Unknown to anyone, Spectre has been reading their minds and inwardly chuckles at what he hears. "For all your information, your universe isn't the only one in which Jaune Arc makes a lasting impression."

Ruby perks up at the sound of that while her partner grumbles beside her. "Really? How many?"

Spectre spreads his arms out and laughs. "ALL OF THEM!"

This time, nobody cries out in surprise, only silence as they grasp over the truth in Spectre's words. Ironwood is the first to shake himself out of his stupor and even then, there's disbelief in his voice. "So this Jaune Arc character is of big importance in **every** universe?"

"How is that possible?" muttered Roman. The master criminal is starting to have second thoughts on staying allied with Cinder. From what he understands of the Multiverse theory, every universe is different in some shape or form. So it speaks of his strength and prowess when this Jaune Arc person remains to be a person of interest in each universe. He doesn't even try to understand how that's possible.

"You're all here to witness Jaune Arc and how he shapes the universe around him, whither it be for the good or bad" said Spectre as he floats to the side of the large screen.

"Jaune, bad? Yeah right. I can't see that happening anytime soon" scoffed Yang with a chuckle. The last thing she imagines Jaune to be is evil in any shape or form. Is he bad at fighting? Yes. Is he bad at socializing? Almost as bad a Ruby. Is he bad at being a romantic? Definitely. But is he bad and evil? No way.

As he's facing away from them all, nobody sees a white light glint within the darkness of Spectre's hood. "Is that so?" muttered Spectre loud enough for everyone to hear. He turns around after the glint vanishes and nobody can see the smirk hidden under the hood of his cloak. "How about we put that to the test?"

All of a sudden, a red crystal from a shelf to everyone's right rises and floats towards the centre of the large screen before sinking into it. The metallic screen ripples like water before it returns to normal and a white light fills the entirety of the screen.

"Let me show you how _**bad**_ Jaune Arc can really be."

Page 9 of 9


	2. Why so serious?

**Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Dark Knight.**

 **xXx**

Yang folds her arms across her chest and scoffs with a challenging smirk. "Yea, I'd like to see that."

"I don't think he was joking" pointed out Blake. If there is an infinite amount of universes, then it could be possible that Jaune isn't a good guy in all of them. Still, she can't imagine the thought of seeing the blond goofball as a villian like Roman.

Pyrrha watches as the white light fades from the screen, feeling uncomfortable over the thought of Jaune being a bad guy. The thought makes her stomach queasy and gives her goosebumps along her arms.

 **The lights fades to show a bird's eye view of the city of Vale before zooming in on the Vale Central Bank, showing people walking in and out to make deposits or for meetings over their finances. Unknown to the public and police, the mob has complete control over the bank and keeps their illegal money behind the safety of the bank's vault.**

 **Across the street, a window is broken on the thirtieth floor of another building, showing a pair of men with clown masks, covering their faces. The one who shattered the window moves away as the second one moves in front of the window with a grappling gun. Taking aim across the street, he fires and true to his aim, he hits the rooftop of the Vale Central Bank.**

"Is this what I think it is?" asked Ren, blinking at the sight. From two men in masks attaching a grappling hook to the rooftop, it looks like they're intending to do something very illegal.

"It's a heist!" gasped Nora with a wide grin.

 **While the two of them line themselves over to the rooftop of the bank, a van stops around the corner a few blocks away from the bank. This is so they can pick up their remaining heist member who puts on his clown mask before entering the van which drives to the bank. After driving the three blocks, the van stops in front of the bank and three men step out of the van, all wearing a clown mask of sorts.**

 **The most noticeable one being the guy who's wearing a purple suit and a mask which has the face of a sad clown on it.**

"I don't like the look of him" muttered Glynda, narrowing her eyes at the man. She isn't sure what it is but she feels something... off about him.

Ozpin takes a sip from his coffee mug, quite surprised to find that it has refilled itself. He'll have to thank Spectre since he's sure that it is his work. Sighing, he looks up at the screen and at the man in the 'Sad' Clown mask. "Neither do I, Glynda. Neither do I."

 **One of the men on the rooftop gathers his gear for his hacking job. The other is crouching beside him, waiting for him to get started. He can't complete his 'first' task until the hacker finishes up. While they are getting ready, one decides to make some conversation. "Do you know why they call him the Joker?"**

"Joker?" repeated Emerald, furrowing her brows in confusion. "As in the joker card?"

"Sounds like an alias to me so it's most likely the guy who hired them" answered Roman, being the expert on anything criminal related. "When hiring the crew, you don't give them your real name. That's just stupid since they can always rat you out if they get caught."

"You'd know a lot about this, wouldn't you" said Blake, glaring at Roman who shrugs his shoulders.

"It's what I'd do anyway."

 **"They say that he has wears makeup like a clown."**

 **On the ground floor, the three other 'clowns' enter the building. While one of them fires into the air to get everyone's attention, another knocks down a security guard who falls to the floor, unconscious. The remaining two security guards move to pull out their pistols but two of the 'clowns' raise their automatic rifles at them, forcing them to drop their guns or get filled with lead.**

 **The remaining 'clown' starts to pull out the bank employees from behind their tills. This is so to prevent them from activating the silent alarm and notifying the police. They don't know if the hacker has completed his job yet so they don't want to take any chances but one of the employees manages to do so before she finds herself pulled out of her till and thrown onto the floor.**

 **On the rooftop, the hacker finishes up on his side of the job, stopping the silent alarm from going off before it can warn the police. "That's strange..." he murmured, noticing something odd about the alarm system.**

 **"Something wrong?" asked the second clown from behind the hacker.**

 **"The silent alarm... it didn't intend to connect to the police but to a private line."**

 **"Is that going to be a problem?"**

 **The hacker shakes his head. "Nah, I'm finished anyway."**

 **With his back to him, the hacker fails to see his 'ally' pull out his sidearm and raise it to his back. "Good."**

 ***BANG!***

This surprises a few people in the audience, having not expected that to happen.

"What is going on?" asked Ruby, watching as one criminal shoots the other in the back without a second thought. "I thought they were on the same team?"

Roman shakes his head in disappointment. "There's no such thing as teams or friends in this world, Red. Here, you only have forced acquaintances."

Ruby frowns, still not understanding what just happened. "But why did he kill him?"

Roman smirks while watching the screen, enjoying the show. "It's probably because the hacker had no more use to them. If the guy only had to do one job for them, it makes sense for everyone else to get rid of him to give everyone else a bigger cut." Roman puffs out a ring of smoke from his cigar. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some of the others do that as well" he answered, watching as the three 'clowns' in the lobby take control over the hostages. He pays extra attention to the guy in the purple suit and wearing a sad clown mask. _"That guy is way to relaxed for a job this big."_

 **After taking care of the hacker, the robber grabs the bag with the drill and runs down the stairs to get to the vault. He can almost smell the money!**

 **While he's unlocking the vault, 'Sad' Clown is giving all the hostages a present in the shape of a grenade. Much to their horror, he also takes off the pins of each grenade and pushes them into their hands, forcing them to hold onto the explosives for dear life.**

 **Unknown to either of the three 'clowns', they didn't see the person in one of the nearby offices until he shoots one of the clowns in the back, revealing himself to be none other than Qrow Branwen with a pump shotgun on hand.**

"Uncle Qrow!" cheered Ruby, bouncing in her seat after seeing her uncle who's fighting back against the criminals.

While Yang's excited to see her uncle, at least an alternate version of him, she still keeps a hand on her sister's shoulder to prevent her from jumping out of her seat. Looking closer at her uncle, she laughs and points her finger at the screen. "And look, uncle Qrow's wearing a monkey suit!"

While not a suit made of monkey fur but a simple black suit that actually looks good on him, Qrow blanches at the sight of him in one of those annoying forms of clothing. His brow twitches when he hears chuckling from Ozpin, Ironwood and even Raven!

Taking a deep drink from his flask, Qrow releases a deep breath. "Oum, I better look good at the end of this."

 **'Sad' Clown crouches behind a table, avoiding a buckshot from hitting him and blowing a hole in the wooden table instead. Keeping himself low to the floor, he moves across the tables to the end of the last one, where his remaining ally is hiding behind.**

 **"Do you know who you're stealing from!?" yelled Qrow, firing at 'Sad' Clown but missing. "You and you're friends are dead!"**

"It appears that Qrow is aware of who owns the money in the bank" said Ironwood, throwing Qrow an accusing glare.

Qrow responds by throwing the Atlesian General a dry look. "Don't you go blaming me for my alternate version's actions" he said. He hopes that the next universe will have an evil version of Ironwood, just so he can wipe it all over the Atlesian General's face.

 **'Sad' Clown eventually reaches to the end table, hiding beside the remaining clown who looks down at him. "Fun, right?" 'Sad' Clown looks up at the ceiling, as if thinking before nodding to the other 'clown' who nods back before standing up to fire at Qrow.**

 **However, Qrow fires at the 'clown' first, dropping him to the floor. Qrow pumps his shotgun again, only for it to jam up.**

 _"Ah crap"_ thought Qrow, knowing where this is leading up to. A weapon jamming in the middle of a fight has cost the lives of many Huntsmen and Huntresses who failed to maintain their weaponry on a daily basis. He fears that it'll cost the life of his alternate version as well. _"And this just so happens to occur in a world where there's no Aura"_ he thought, remembering the first two 'clowns' who died with no form of protection.

 **The moment he hears the shotgun jam, 'Sad' Clown runs out of covers and fires his handgun at Qrow, dropping him after three bullets hit him. Watching the man fall to the floor, 'Sad' Clown tilts his head, as if curious.**

 **His attention is taken away when the 'clown' from before stands up, showing that Qrow's shotgun shell has only hit his shoulder with the protective fabric preventing the bullets from piercing. "Who taught you how to shoot?!" he yelled, pissed over getting shot. It may have not pierced but it still hurts like a bitch. 'Sad' Clown shrugs his shoulders, keeping up his silent charade. "Fuck, just watch over the hostages. I'll check up on the guy on the vault."**

 **'Sad' Clown nods and waves away the 'clown' who runs to the vault. The 'clown' runs into the room with the vault, seeing the other remaining 'clown' who looks to be finished with the door.**

 **"The bank linked the door with five thousand volts. What kind of bank does that?" asked the 'clown', opening up the locks of the door.**

 **"The mob kind. What happened to the other guy?"**

 **The 'clown' spins open the last remaining lock, successfully opening up the vault door. "Joker said to take him out after his job was done. Bigger cut for us anyway" he answered, failing to see his fellow 'clown' who pulls out his handgun.**

 **"Funny. He told me the same thing."**

 **The 'clown' freezes and his eyes widen behind his mask in realization. "No, wai-!"**

 ***BANG!***

"Told ya" grinned Roman while Neo silently laughs from beside him.

"What happened to honour among thieves?" asked Weiss, glaring at Roman, as if he's the one who's killing them.

Emerald is the one who answers the Schnee heiress. "There's no such thing. You either survive or you die, simple as that." She has spent most of her life on the streets and she learned a long time ago that trusting into the wrong people will only get you killed. If not for her Semblance, she would have died a long time ago.

 **After moving the corpse away from the door, the 'clown' opens the vault door and runs in, seeing stacks of lien on several metal tables. For the next twenty minutes, he starts putting the lien in the duffle bags, managing to fill up seven of them. Afterwards, he drags the heavy bags out into the lobby and piles them on top of one another. "That's a lot of money. Too bad Joker didn't give us a bigger car" he said to his last remaining ally.**

 **'Sad' Clown silently nods and turns away to continue watch over the hostages, only to stop when he hears the sound of a cocking handgun. Turning around, he sees that the 'clown' has a gun on him. "I bet the Joker told you to kill me after loading the money."**

"Another betrayal?" asked Glynda, frowning over the amount of mistrust and death. It's odd that none of the hostages have been hurt but most of the robbers have been killed off, due to the orders of their boss, Joker.

"Nope" answered Roman, swinging one leg over the other. "Just plain ole' paranoia."

Cinder glances over at the master criminal. "Explain."

Roman chuckles. "Obviously, that guy is feeling a bit paranoid after being told by the boss to kill a fellow crew member, especially when he finds out that the guy he killed was told the exact same orders, only to someone else. With all that money, he doesn't want the risk the chance of losing it all and getting shot in the back so he may as well finish off the last remaining guy."

Ozpin frowns and looks over at the floating Spectre. "While I'm sure this is educational for my students in some way, I'd like to know what this has to do with Mr. Arc."

Spectre looks over at the headmaster before turning back to the screen. "Pay attention and you'll find out."

 **'Sad' Clown lifts up an arm to look at his watch, taking a step to the right in the process. "No~, I kill the bus driver."**

"Jaune!?" cried out team RWBY and (J)NPR, staring at the screen in shock. They knew that the story had to involve him in some way but they didn't think that he was the silent robber in all of this.

Cinder raises a brow in interest, not only over the revelation that 'Sad' Clown is Jaune Arc but also because of this mysterious bus driver. _"What bus driver?"_

 **"Bus driver? What bus driver?!"**

 **The 'clown' soon finds out when the back of a school bus crashes through the wall behind him, colliding into his back. He's thrown into the pile of bags, dead before he hits the floor.**

 **"That bus driver."**

 **The back door of the school bus opens, revealing another 'clown'. "School's out, time to leave" he said, uncaring that he just ran over one of the crew members. Jumping out, he starts helping out 'Sad' Clown with the money and throws them into the bus. Looking around, he notices a lack of his fellow 'clowns'. "Hey, where's the other guys?"**

 **'Sad' Clown looks around for the remaining bag which was thrown a few feet away by the bus. Glancing over his shoulder, he empties his clip into the remaining 'clown' and walks over to the remaining bag. Picking it up, he drags it to the bus and throws it in. He moves to jump in but the sound of someone coughing catches his attention. Turning around, he sees that the bank employee he shot isn't dead, although he is painting the floor red with his blood.**

"You're still alive?" asked Glynda, surprised to see the counterpart of the drunk Huntsman still alive. While she isn't fond of Qrow, she doesn't want to see him dead.

"Of course. No matter what universe I'm in, I'm still one tough cookie" bragged Qrow, puffing his chest out in bravado.

Yang merely laughs while Ruby drools over the thought of cookies.

 **"You know the guy who hired you will only kill you like the others" choked out Qrow.**

 **'Sad' Clown tilts his head and walks over to the bank employee, pulling an object out of his back pocket.**

 **Qrow isn't finished speaking. "Criminals in this town use to believe for something. Honour. Respect!" The employee glares up at 'Sad' Clown who looms over his bleeding body. "What do you believe in? WHAT DO YOU BELIEVE IN!" He would've continued, if not for 'Sad' Clown stuffing a grenade into his mouth.**

 **Afterwards, 'Sad' Clown grabs Qrow's face and pulls it close to his own, just so he can hear his voice as clear as day. "What I believe in is that what doesn't kill you, makes you..." He removes his mask, not only revealing the face of the man behind the mask, but also the face of the Joker. "...stranger."**

"Dear Oum" Ren gasped in horror.

He isn't the only one as the entirety of team RWBY and (J)NPR are staring up at the screen, looking at the horrifying visage of Jaune Arc. With the mask off, they can all see the cracked white paint that covers up most of his face, as well as the awful green dye in his blonde hair. The most horrifying feature of his face are his lips and they don't mean the red paint that covers them. Rather, the long scars that stretch upwards from both sides of the lips, forming a permanent smile of flesh on his face.

Involuntarily, Weiss touches the scar that runs across her left eye. She has always hated her scar, believing it to be a sign of weakness for her, an ugliness in her perfection. Now, she's starting to believe that she got off lucky.

Many are wondering how he got those scars in the first place. Others are figuring out that this version of Jaune Arc isn't exactly sane.

 _"Those eyes..."_ thought Ironwood, recognizing the madness that hides behind them. Spending most of his life in the Atlesian military, he has grown use to seeing civilians and even some of his own soldiers being emitted into the psychotherapy ward. Constantly fighting the threat of Grimm and losing loved ones tends to damage the minds of some of the most toughest men and women. However, they all seem to pale in comparison to the insanity in those pools of blue.

"I hope to never see such eyes on our world's version of Mr. Arc" sighed Ozpin, having seen plenty of people lose their sanity in his long life. He just hasn't seen anything as bad as the ones he's seeing right now.

"Jaune..." muttered Pyrrha, watching the insane alternate version of her partner. "What could have happened to make you like this?"

 **Giving the bleeding man one last smile, he turns around and makes his way to the bus. Qrow would've glared at the back of Jaune's skull, if not for him noticing the long piece of thread that is attached to the Joker's back pocket. The reason for his interest is because the other side of the thread is tied to the pin of the grenade in his mouth. All he can do is watch in fear and pain as the Joker enters the bus and after closing it behind him, drives out of the hole.**

 **Time almost seems to stop for Qrow when the thread pulls off the pin from his grenade, making him wait an agonizing three seconds before it explodes. After three long seconds of agonizing wait, the grenade goes off but not in the way Qrow expected. Instead of a large explosion that would've blew his head off, a stream of smoke pours out of the end of the grenade, revealing it to be a simple smoke grenade. With all the tension and adrenaline coursing through his veins, Qrow can only lie his head down and squeak.**

Yang and Ruby would've found such a noise coming out of their uncle funny, but their sense of humour has died the moment it was revealed that Jaune was the Joker. Seeing those scars on his face and knowing the fact that he planned the robbery in the first place, they're actually feeling a bit of fear from him. Not an emotion one would usually feel from Jaune Arc.

Roman furrows his brows in thought. "I'm curious over how he expects to escape the police on a school bus of all things." With so much noise and confusion in the bank, someone should've called the authorities at this point.

 **Joker laughs as he drives his bus right in between a trio of similar school buses who are driving the children pass the bank to get to the zoo. Even from within the bus, he can hear the happy chatter and laughs from the children and it makes him laugh as well. Even more so when the police cruisers drive pass him, never suspecting that in one of the four school buses is millions of stolen lien and the man who planned it all.**

 **"All part of the plan" laughed Joker, driving alongside the school buses and getting away with the mob's money. If this doesn't get their attention, nothing will.**

The screen fades away, leaving the Joker's insane laughter to echo for an extra few seconds before disappearing altogether. The fading laughter only added to the tension in the room, although the likes of Cinder and Raven are mostly unaffected by the insanity of the Joker. Doesn't mean that they aren't mildly put off by the laughter.

Spectre turns to face everyone or rather, Yang. "I hope that was enough proof for you that anyone can go bad, even the purest of souls."

Yang doesn't reply, still trying to shake off the fear in her legs. Thankfully, she isn't standing up so nobody can see her legs shaking. She isn't the only one as many of the young Hunters-in-training are shaking off their own shaking. However, there's one person in the room who isn't feeling fear, regret or indifference for the insane version of Jaune Arc. Instead, they are feeling... lust.

If one were to pay attention, they would notice that Neo looks to be slightly flustered and is rubbing her legs together.

Spectre looks over at the audience while ignoring what Neo is doing. "Now then, you wants to go first?"

Cinder raises a single delicate brow. "First for what?"

Spectre raises his hidden arms to indicate to the infinite versions of reality that hide within the crystals on the shelves. "First to choose which universe you will all watch next."

"Really? You'll let us choose?" asked Mercury.

"I don't see the harm in doing so" said Spectre, floating harmlessly in the air.

After several seconds of silence, Blake is the first to stand up from her feet. "I guess I'll go first."

Spectre nods and waves an arm towards the shelves. "Pick whichever one you want."

Walking over to the shelves on the left side of the room , Blake looks over the rows of crystals in curiosity. She doesn't know what to choose from the variety so throwing a hand out, she takes a hold of an orange crystal that has a spec of blue in the centre of it. She turns towards the immortal godlike figure and holds up the crystal. "I choose this one."

Spectre nods as the crystal floats out of the Faunus's hand and floats into the large screen. "Good choice."

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"You saved me... why?"**

 **"Old habits die hard I guess."**

Page 10 of 10


	3. We're all soldiers now

**Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Overwatch.**

 **xXx**

"I hope that the next universe won't have an insane version of Jaune" said Ruby, having disliked the insane version of her first friend. The Joker obviously didn't care for human life and wasn't afraid to take it either. The thought of her own universe's Jaune taking lives so easily brings a chill up her spine.

"I wouldn't say that. I actually thought he was clever" mentioned Roman while taking down notes from what he learned from the Joker. While the guy is an obvious psychopath and a terrible dresser, Roman can admit that he likes the guy's style. By acting as a member of the heist crew and giving discrete orders to other certain members of the crew, he made it so he would be the last remaining man alive, leaving him with millions of lien while having done the least amount of work.

 **The screen shows an image of a small town that's far too big to be a village, but too small to be a city. It zooms in on a large cottage that lies on the outskirts of the town, being just close enough that it only takes ten minutes to get into town by foot, but far enough to be surrounded by forestry.**

To many of those who are watching, the town and cottage means very little to them. However, four from the audience recognizes the town since three of them live there and another use to be a resident.

"Look, it's Patch!" exclaimed Ruby, pointing at the screen with a big smile on her face. It's not only showing Patch, but also her own house. "Maybe we'll actually be in this universe."

"Home sweet home" chuckled Yang, leaning back against her seat while she looks upon the visage of her hometown. To be honest, she's starting to feel a little home sick. Maybe Ruby and herself will pay dad a little visit during the holidays. She's sure he's probably feeling a little lonely, now that he's in the house on his own.

Qrow grins at the sight of his hometown, missing it already. With his nieces and brother-in-law living there, he has grown accustomed to the town so he can stay close to them. At this point, he knows all the residents by their names and the barmaids by the length of their skirts. It's the home he never got while apart of the Branwen tribe.

Raven frowns, remembering her short time in Patch before leaving her family behind. While she tried her best to adapt, she never did feel right in home in Patch. Even with a loving husband and a daughter on the way, Raven knew that her one true family will always be her tribe. The revelation still doesn't rid herself of the hollow ache in her chest.

 **The door to the cottage opens, revealing a familiar redhead with a red hood over her shoulders, appearing to be twelve years old instead of fifteen. In her hand is a gothic, red and black purse that is full of money that her mother has given her for shopping. "I'm not a baby anymore, mom so stop treating me like one!" Ruby moaned, absolutely sick of hearing her mother try to explain the same simple instruction over and over again. It isn't hard to remember!**

 **A figure steps out to the doorway, folding her arms across her chest while her white hood rests over her shoulders. "Listen to me, Ruby. Get the flour and come home quickly. No stops" she said, sternly whole pointing a warning finger at her daughter. "It'll be dark soon and you know that the Red Dragons like to hang out at night."**

Ruby's silver eyes widens at the sight of the woman before she starts blinking to rid herself of her growing tears. "M-Mom?"

Ruby isn't the only one who's surprised as Yang, Raven, Qrow and even Ozpin are staring at the screen in shock. "Summer?" muttered Qrow, having not expected to see his deceased teammate in any shape or form, except from the old pictures that lay around in Taiyang's living room. He's so caught off guard that his hold on his flask slackens and he drops the flask on the floor, spilling its contents.

"To think, even those we have lost in our universe are alive in others" muttered Ozpin, drowning himself in guilt. How can he not feel guilty after Summer died on a mission he assigned her on. It's because of his orders that Taiyang has lost his wife and Ruby grew up without a mother.

Glynda places a comforting hand on Ozpin's shoulder. "It isn't your fault, sir. You couldn't have predicted what would happen" she said, knowing all about Ozpin's guilt for sending Summer onto a mission that ended in her death. She has explained to him that it's part of the job they all agreed to when fighting Salem, but it doesn't lessen the guilt he feels.

Worried for her partner, Weiss taps Ruby on her shoulder. "Ruby, you alright?"

Sniffing, Ruby wipes away the tears in her eyes and smiles. "I'm fine. I'm just... happy to see mom, even if she's in a different universe."

"Do you need anything?" asked a concerned Blake.

Ruby smiles over the thoughtfulness of her teammates and shakes her head. All she needs is to gaze at the alternate version of her mother and memorize everything about her. _"She's so beautiful."_ She feels so happy that Ruby doesn't even try to shake off Yang when she wraps an arm around her shoulders. Knowing that Yang is feeling as emotional as she is, Ruby snuggles closer to her sister and relishes into the warmth.

 **"Fine!" replied Ruby with attitude in her tone before she starts to walk down the path that leads to town.**

 **As Ruby stomps down the path to town, Summer Rose watches her in silence, sighing only when she loses sight of her daughter. "I worry about Ruby, everyday. No longer a child and nowhere near grown up. She's at a crossroads."**

 **After getting into town, Ruby walks around the corner and notices a poster on a nearby wall. Looking up at it, she recognizes it as an old poster of the team of heroes, Overwatch. She is too young to know about them, but years ago, they were known to save the world on a yearly basis. At least, that's what her mother tells her. The poster use to fill the hearts of people with hope, knowing that they are protected by the group of heroes.**

 **However, after they disbanded years ago, crime has risen to an all new high and now, Patch is mostly run by the crime syndicate, Red Dragons. Glaring at the picture of useless heroes, Ruby continues her trek to the store.**

"Wow. That was rude" said Weiss, feeling perplexed over seeing her partner in such a foul mood. In all her time knowing Ruby, she can count the number of times that Ruby hasn't been smiling on one hand for Oum's sake!

Yang looks over Ruby's head to throw the Schnee heiress a deadpan glare. "Pot, meet the kettle."

"Shut up!"

Nora blinks upon noticing something specific about the poster. "Hey, doesn't the guy on the poster look a little bit like Jaune?"

Upon closer inspection of the poster, everyone who knows Jaune can agree with Nora. The poster shows several men and woman who were once apart of the team, Overwatch. The most noticeable of them is the blonde man who is looking out in the distance, striking a heroic pose.

Pyrrha smiles when she sees the pose the man is taking. It's difficult to see if it's actually Jaune, because it only shows one side of his face, but she can see Jaune making such a pose himself.

Ozpin is quick to come up with a conclusion. "If so, that means this version of Mr. Arc is a lot older than Ms. Rose."

 **Summer's motherly voice can still be heard with nothing but love for her daughter. "I tell her about the heroes who saved our world, time and time again. Because I want to give her hope..."**

 **Ruby walks around the corner in the quiet streets of Patch, only to flinch when she sees three members of the Red Dragons who are all laughing and kicking something she can't see. From the cries of pain, she can make a good guess on what it is, but as much as she wants to help, she can't do anything about it. What can a twelve year old do to three grown men with weapons?**

 **"...but I'm afraid that she will be forced to make a decision that will decide the direction of her life."**

 **As quietly as possible, Ruby tries to sneak around the trio of Red Dragons, but unfortunately, one of them manages to spot her.**

 **"Hey girl, where are you going?" he asked, stalking over to Ruby who has suddenly frozen up in fear.**

 **Ruby stiffens and tries to ignore the baseball bat in the thug's hand, inwardly hoping that the dried up red liquid on it is just ketchup. "N-Nowhere" she answered, trying and failing to keep her voice under control.**

 **Her answer makes the thug laugh. "Nowhere is right. Come here." He wraps an arm around Ruby's shoulder and drags her to his two friends. "You got to see this." Dragging the redhead, he stops and points his wooden bat at the writhing body in front of them. "Look at this thing" he said in disgust, giving Ruby his wooden bat. "Give this animal what it deserves."**

 **Shaking in fear, Ruby can only look down at the beaten body of a Dog Faunus. He is covered in bruises, his right arm in bending in the wrong direction and from what she can tell, he is barely able to keep himself conscious.**

The sight brings a bad taste to Blake's mouth. Her cat-like eyes narrow at the screen, hating to watch as a fellow Faunus is beaten for being of a different species. _"Even in other universes, Faunus are treated like second-class citizens."_

Qrow glares at the trio of men, disliking them for their actions and for scaring Ruby. While he's sure that racism doesn't happen in his own universe's version of Patch, he makes sure to memorize the faces of the thugs. Just in case.

Yang's lilac eyes turn red, feeling not just disgust over seeing the three men beat up a defenseless Faunus, but also anger because one of them has the nerve to touch her sister. She wonders where her other version is and why she isn't there to beat up the thug who has the gall to touch Ruby.

Ruby looks up at the screen, feeling as uncomfortable as her alternate self. She isn't racist in any shape or form so why would she hit someone for being a Faunus, especially when he's already beaten up plenty. _"I don't like this."_

 **"I-I don't know. I got to go" replied Ruby, barely managing to hold up the bat with her weak muscles. It's a simple wooden bat, but the owner has drilled in three plates of metal onto the top of the bat, making it heavier than it should be.**

 **Her response makes the thug chuckle before blowing up. "Come on. DO IT!" He pushes Ruby forward who barely catches herself before she falls. "It's only a stupid dog."**

"Stupid dog!?" yelled Blake, standing up from her seat in outrage. "Those fucking racists!"

"Ms. Belladonna!" gasped Glynda. "Make sure to watch your language in the future" scolded Glynda, but Blake cares very little for Glynda's scolding. While she holds Ms. Goodwitch in high regards, they aren't in their own universe so in her opinion, Ms. Goodwitch has no authority over her.

She isn't the only one who believes this. "I don't think your _all powerful_ authority reaches here, Glynda" smirked Raven, chuckling as Glynda glares at the Bandit Queen.

 **Ruby gulps, realizing that her throat has gone dry. "I-I have to get to t-the store or my mom's going to kill me" she said, trying to excuse herself from the situation.**

 **With her back turned to one of the thugs, he notices Ruby's red and black purse in her back pocket and takes it, much to Ruby's horror. "It's going to be hard to go shopping without any money, little red" he chuckled, throwing the purse to his friends who start playing keep-away with it. As hard as Ruby tries, she can't get her purse back from the thugs, being weaker and smaller than the three grown men.**

 **They would have continued to mess around with her, but a familiar loading truck drives up beside them. The window lowers to reveal a fellow member of the Red Dragons who tells them to get onto the truck. Knowing that they have a job to do, the three thugs get onto the truck, keeping Ruby's money in the process.**

 **Ruby grabs her red and black hair in distress as she watches the thugs drive off with her money. "My money!" she cried, before running through a series of alleyways to catch up with the Red Dragon thugs. How can she get the flour for mom without her money?**

"You could always steal it?" deadpanned Emerald. At one point, she use to steal to sustain her while she lived on the streets, but in time, she eventually did so because of boredom.

"Was Ruby always this adventurous?" asked Ren, looking over to Yang. What kind of child chases after dangerous thugs to get back their purse?

Before Ruby can stop her, Yang nods, "Yep. She never did learn how to sit still" she sighed, before laughing when Ruby starts punching her chests, jokingly.

 **After climbing over a pile of boxes to get over a wall, Ruby crouches behind a few blanks of wood, watching as the truck stops by the end of the alley. Nodding to herself, she walks around the planks of word, only to cry out when she sees a Red Dragon member standing only three feet away from her. She's sure that she's going to get into trouble now!**

 **That is until the thug collapses to the floor, unconscious.**

Mercury whistles, feeling impressed. He isn't impressed over Ruby's dumb luck, but with the unknown assailant who took down the thug. The reason he's impressed is because the person did so without making a sound. Being that close of distance with Ruby should have warned the little girl, but since she didn't hear any noise, they must have attacked the thug and hidden themselves back into the shadows while making no sound whatsoever.

What some of the others don't know, they're watching a professional killer at work.

 **Jumping back, Ruby looks at the unconscious body in evident confusion, before gasping when she hears noises from a nearby alley.**

 **"No, no! Please, no!" cried a Red Dragon member who tries to run out of the interconnecting alley, only for him to trip as he's about to run out out. He tries to pick himself back up, but something pulls him back into the darkness of the alley. All he can do is scrape his fingernails across the floor and scream in terror as he's pulled back into the alley. Three seconds later and his screams go silent, although it's enough time to warn the other three Red Dragon members who are loading their truck.**

"He really didn't want to get caught" said Ironwood, interested over who or what could make a man feel so much fear. He has heard those sort of screams plenty of times throughout his career, but he's positive that the cause isn't a Grimm. A Grimm wouldn't be trying to take down its target so silently. He feels disturbed over knowing that something or rather, someone can make a grown man feel so much fear.

 **"Yo, go check it out" ordered a Red Dragon thug before walking back into the building to get the rest of the boxes. Their boss wanted the weapons to be transported before morning.**

 **Ruby gasps and hides behind a pile of nearby boxes, praying to Oum that they don't find her. She's starting to think that her plan isn't the most well thought out. "Where's Yang when I need her?"**

 **As the two Red Dragons walk down the alley, the fallen thug soon regains consciousness, although his memory is a bit hazy.** _ **"How did I get on the floor?"**_

 **The two Red Dragons walk ;ver and help him up, asking what happened to him. That's just before the unconscious body of another Red Dragon thug is thrown out of the alleyway behind them, colliding with the electric junction box on the wall and destroying it upon impact. With the electric box destroyed, the lights in the alleyway turn off, shrouding the alley into darkness. With all source of light gone, it shows the glow-in-the-dark tattoos on the thugs bodies. Obviously, the tattoos are that of red dragons, due to them being members of the Red Dragon syndicate.**

"Whoever this person is, they're very professional" pointed out Mercury, leaning forward on his chair, just so he has a closer look on the upcoming slaughter. This person is very good if they can take down and throw a grown man's body without giving away their position to the enemy. What's even more impressive is that they are using their surroundings to their advantage, since it's hardly a coincidence that the body was thrown straight into the electric box.

Cinder glances at her subordinate for a moment before turning her attention back onto the screen. The Joker version of Jaune Arc was very interesting so it's a possibility that this one might entertain her as well. She can make a guess that the person who's taking down the thugs is this universe's version of Jaune Arc, seeing as they supposedly be watching him.

"Now it's starting to get interesting" said Qrow, taking a drink from his flask. He gives Spectre a respectful nod for constantly filling his flask with alcohol, especially after he spilled most of it when he dropped it.

 **The three thugs hold up their metal and wooden bats while positioning themselves in a circle so they can look out in all directions of the small alley.**

 **"What was that?!"**

 **"Anyone see anything?"**

 **One of them sees a flash of red in the corner of their vision, but when they turn to see what it is, all he can see are the shadows in the interconnecting alley.**

 **"Enough games! Come out and fight!" yelled a Red Dragon thug, having lost his patience and nerves. Unfortunately for him, he makes the mistake of facing away from the interconnecting alleyway behind him. Because of this mistake, he doesn't see the glowing red light within the shadows, although he does hear** _ **something**_ **growl.**

 **Slowly turning around, he widens his eyes, but before he can open his mouth, a fist punches him across the jaw with enough strength to knock him into the wall.**

"Yes! Take that!' cheered Yang who's happy to see the creep who _**dared**_ to touch her little sister get what's coming to him. She can't help herself but enjoy the sound of his jaw cracking against the solid concrete, or the sight of one of his teeth flying in the air.

Yang isn't the only one who's cheering because Nora can be found standing on her chair and cheering for the unknown assailant to _break their legs._

Qrow shows his true age by cheering as well, ignoring Glynda who shakes her head in disappointment while Ozpin chuckles in amusement.

 **The assailant ducks underneath a swing of a thug's bat while elbowing another incoming thug by the jaw. Spinning around, he punches one thug into the wall while another takes his chance and jumps onto his back, only to find himself on the floor with a broken rib.**

 **And all of this is done with one arm, since his other arm is full by carrying his bulky weapon.**

 **While the four of them fight, Ruby can be seen watching them from behind the boxes with her eyes wide in fear. She thought the Red Dragons were scary, but this guy is even scarier!**

 **"No, please wait!" begged a thug, only for the assailant to throw him into the wall, knocking him out. Another tries to attack him from behind, but the assailant turns and punches him in the face, having him fall unconscious from the blow. The remaining Red Dragon throws a punch, but the assailant uses his lone arm to not only reflect the punch, but also grab the thug's face and slam it into the wall,**

Ren winces over the sound of bones breaking. "Gotta say, he doesn't pull back his punches" he said, feeling a little pity for the thugs. It's almost like he's watching a wild tiger lay waste to its prey, uncaring of how messy it does so.

Nora stares at the screen with stars in her eyes. "I know! Isn't he great."

Pyrrha facepalms and sighs over Nora's antics. _"Of course she's enjoying it."_

 **Now that he's out of the shadows and done with beating the thugs, Ruby can get a good look of the terrifying man. He's tall, probably over six feet and adorns a blue, red and white jacket that has the numbers,** _ **76**_ **on the back of it. He also wears a pair of red gloves, black combat pants and a matching set of boots. His entire face is mostly hidden behind a mask and a red visor, although a scar can be seen travelling from his forehead to under his visor, indicating that he has suffered from a grievous wound. While it's difficult to tell how old he is, his short grey hair and wrinkly forehead tells of a man who is past his prime.**

Emerald blinks while looking over the old, yet intimidating man. "Is that suppose to be Arc? If so, what's his deal with all the masks?" First was the Joker wearing a clown mask and now, here's another who's wearing another, if not futuristic mask. Does her own unvierse's version also wear a mask as well?

Nora takes in the man's appearance. "Fearless leader is old!" It's odd how she says that with a wide grin on her face and excitement in her tone.

"Yet, no less intimidating" pointed out Weiss, feeling a bit intimidated over the elderly man. The man's brutality makes her cringe every so often, especially when she hears him break someone else's bone. _"There's no way the doofus will grow up into that!"_

Ironwood remains silent, but nods his head in respect. Even if the man turns out to not be Jaune Arc, Ironwood can respect this man. Even when he's past his prime, his movements show of a soldier who hasn't grown lax over the years. Being General of the Atlesian military, James Ironwood knows how to spot a soldier when he sees one and the man on the screen is the perfect example.

Only far more dangerous.

Spectre decides to fill in the gaps for everyone. "You are correct, Emerald. For the man you see before you is none other than this universe's Jaune Arc. However, he prefers to go by the name, Soldier 76."

"Soldier 76?" whispered Ozpin, watching as the older version of Jaune Arc destroy the three young thugs. He's honestly impressed with the man's skill, as well as the brutality he shows when fighting. Soldier 76 fights in a manner so he can break and fracture as many bones in his opponent's body as possible. It's definitely not a style that they teach in Beacon, but it does the job to dropping the enemy a lot quicker. That's why two of the thugs are lying on the floor, unconscious while Jaune is pressing the third's face into a wall.

 **Pressing the thug's face into the wall, Soldier 76 turns to see another member of the Red Dragons walk out of the building at the end of the alley with a box in his hands. Knowing that the box is filled with smuggled weapons, Soldier 76 growls and drops the thug so he can lift up his Heavy Pulse Rifle.**

 **After noticing that someone has taken out his fellow Red Dragons, the thug drops the box that's in his hands and whistles for the lookouts on the rooftops before running onto the back of the truck. Opening up a large crate that's full of piñatas, he reaches into it and pulls out a minigun before he starts firing it down the alley, hoping to gun down the unknown assailant.**

 **Soldier 76 runs and takes cover behind a wall while ignoring the gunfire form the minigun, as well as from the three thugs on the roofotps. Holding his rifle to his chest, he flips a switch which switches his weapon from primary to secondary. Taking in a deep breath, Soldier 76 runs out of cover and into the firing range.**

"What on Remnant does he think he's doing!?" gasped Glynda, honestly wondering if this version of Jaune Arc is as crazy as the Joker version. Who else in their right mind would jump out into open gunfire?

Yang smirks at the sight. "Got to say, vomit boy has a huge set of balls on him, that's for sure" she remarked, chuckling over how her sister wrinkles her nose in disgust and her partner slapping her shoulder.

 **Rolling onto his knees, Soldier 76 aims his Heavy Pulse Rifle and fires his Helix rockets, launching a trio of small rockets which twirl around each other in a helix pattern. The thug with the minigun widens his eyes, but fails to move before the rockets explode, destroying the truck full of weaponry and him with them. The trio of gunmen on the rooftops cover their eyes to protect themselves from the heat and blinding bright light of the flames, giving Soldier 76 two whole seconds of no gunfire.**

 **Those two seconds prove to be enough for the vigilante. Running across a pile of nearby crates, Soldier 76 jumps off of them while spinning in midair to look up at the gunmen on the rooftops. Such an awkward angle would give even the best shooters trouble, but luckily, he has something to aid him. Activating his Tactical Visor, it automatically locks onto the three gunmen on the rooftop. All Soldier 76 has to do is pull the trigger three times and watch as each shot hit one of the gunmen.**

"It locks onto his enemies?" muttered Ruby in awe of the device. From what she has just witnessed, Jaune fired his weapon from the hip and still managed to hit each of the gunmen with perfect accuracy. _"Such a device would increase Crescent Rose's accuracy by 100%!"_

Ruby isn't the only one wondering about the workings of Soldier 76's Tactical Visor. Ironwood makes note to explain the details of the visor to Dr. Polendina himself. Such a targeting system could prove to be quite beneficial for fighting the Grimm.

 **Landing on top of a dumpster, Soldier 76 pushes himself off and walks down the hallway towards the Red Dragon thug who has regained consciousness. To Ruby Rose who is watching him from behind the boxes, he poses as an intimidating figure. Especially when he's walking away from the flames of the destroyed truck and ignoring the three thugs who fall down to the floor from the rooftops.**

Raven smirks at the sight. She'll admit that she likes this version of Jaune Arc. Everything from the way he walks, growls and fights screams power and she especially likes the way he is destroying the thugs without so much of a challenge. _"Only the strong survive."_

"Okay, that's badass" admitted Yang who's feeling exciting chills from the sight. She isn't sure if it's because of his animalistic brutality, the badass scene being played in front of her or because she knows that it's Jaune Arc of all people who's giving her the chills.

 **The thug tries his best to crawl away from the... monster! While crawling away, he doesn't see the little girl who's hiding behind the boxes in front of him.**

 **Neither does Soldier 76 who picks up the nearby remains of a piñata and growls. Walking over to the thug and ignoring his pleas and pathetic begging, Soldier 76 growls and starts punching the piñata's remains into the back of his head.**

 **"These. Aren't. Your. Streets. ANYMORE!" declared Soldier 76, emphasizing each word with a punch to the back of the thug's head. He puts even more strength into the last punch, hearing the sounds of something breaking when the thug's head cracks across the floor. The sound scares the ten year old who cries out from behind the boxes, feeling afraid from being so close to the scary man.**

Ruby doesn't like to admit it, but she's starting to feel a bit scared of Soldier 76 as well. That last universe showed an insane version of Jaune who didn't care about taking human lives and obviously, neither does this one. The only difference is that this version is a lot more brutal than the Joker. The Joker might have been insane, but he didn't break bones or dislodge teeth. He didn't growl like an animal either and from what she can tell, Jaune shows no traits of being a Faunus so he can't use that as an excuse.

"I like how this guy operates" said Cinder, liking the no nonsense attitude of Soldier 76. While he isn't showing anything she hasn't seen before, she's impressed that someone of his age can move and fight so well. She also likes how he handles the useless thugs, breaking them both figuratively and literally. _"I wonder what he was capable of when he was younger."_

"Neo, I think we were lucky on our end" whispered Roman with Neo nodding in agreement. Both of them realize that they are lucky to not have someone like Soldier 76 after them. They'll take little red and her team of misfits anytime over the brutal vigilante.

 **"Huh?" growled Soldier 76 who looks up from the unconscious thug to see a little girl behind a pile of boxes.** _ **"What's a kid doing out here?"**_

 **Soldier 76 turns away from the little girl when he hears the sound of a vehicle behind him. At the end of the smoking alley, he sees another truck show up with even more Red Dragon thugs. However, they aren't attacking him and are preferring to to retrieve their fallen comrades.**

 **"You aren't getting away that easy" said Soldier 76 before he runs towards the truck, ready to deliver his** _ **own**_ **form of justice.**

 **On the back of the truck, a Red Dragon thug pulls out the pin of a grenade and throws it. The grenade doesn't land anywhere near Soldier 76 but rather, it rolls right in front of Ruby Rose.**

"RUBY!" yelled Yang, standing up and staring at the screen in horror. Her lilac eyes glow red as she watches the grenade slowly count down, ready to tear apart her little sister. She doesn't care if she is from a different universe, Ruby Rose is her sister and **nothing** is going to change that.

Qrow clenches his fist around his flask and bites his bottom lip, hating himself for feeling so useless. He knows that it isn't his Ruby, but he can't stand to watch as his little niece dies, no matter which universe it is in.

 **Soldier 76 widens his eyes and turns, glaring at the retreating truck. He takes a step forward to give chase after them, but the scream of the little girl has him stop and turn around. A second later and the grenade goes off, exploding in a flurry of flames.**

 **Soldier 76 slides across the floor on his side, having taken the brunt of the explosion. Grunting in pain, he slowly pushes himself up to reveal Ruby Rose who doesn't have a scratch.**

"He saved her?" asked Glynda, honestly surprised over the revelation. To her, it looked like Soldier 76 was going to give chase to the Red Dragons and leave Ms. Rose to her fate. Instead, he surprised her by risking his life to save the life of an innocent. Without her even realizing, Glynda allows a small smile to stretch across her lips.

"Go fearless leader!" cheered Nora, celebrating for her fearless leader and his successful rescue of Ruby. No matter what universe he's in, Jaune will always remain as the fearless leader of team JNPR.

Pyrrha smiles, feeling pride over the alternate version of her partner. It started off a bit risky at first but in the end, she can tell that there's a lot more of her partner in Soldier 76. Her own partner would've done the exact same thing as well.

 **Soldier 76 pushes himself onto his feet and grabs a hold of his side in pain. Growling and clenching his fists in anger, he turns around and glares at nothing or rather, at the memory of the guy who almost got an innocent little girl killed. He'll be making sure to provide that guy with extra** _ **treatment**_ **for doing that.**

"Go, vomit boy! Beat that guy senseless" cheered Yang, pumping her fist in the air while holding onto Ruby with the other. After watching an alternate version of her sister almost blow up, she is feeling a little bit protective over her.

"Break his legs and afterwards, break them again!" exclaimed Nora, agreeing with Yang.

 **Still sitting on the floor, Ruby looks away in confusion over the man's actions. "You saved me" she muttered, turning to look up at the masked vigilante who threw himself at the explosion to save her. "Why?"**

 **Soldier 76 turns towards Ruby, scaring her by the sudden movement. He may have saved her life, but that hasn't rid her of the memory of him destroying the Red Dragons with ease.**

 **Soldier 76 looks down at the child before inwardly sighing. She isn't the first child he saved and honestly, she's starting to bring up memories of a time that has long past. Memories of when he was a member and eventual leader of Overwatch. A time where he wasn't a vigilante who's wanted by every Kingdom on the planet.** _ **"Oum, I'm getting old"**_ **he inwardly chuckled.**

 **"Old habits die hard I guess" he replied. "Run home kid. It ain't safe out here." The vigilante throws something at Ruby who catches it on reflex. Looking down at her hands, her eyes widen when she sees that it's her purse.**

"But when did he get her purse back?" asked Blake as her ears twitch under her bow in curiosity. In all of his time fighting the thugs, she wonders where he could've snatched the purse.

"Must've took it during the scuffle with the thugs" said Weiss, folding her arms and nodding her head towards Soldier 76. Since he's obviously not as useless as her ownuniverse's version of the doofus, she'll give Soldier 76 her respect, especially after saving her partner's life.

 **As Soldier 76 turns around to pick up his rifle, he doesn't see Ruby's growing smile. As he starts to walk away, Ruby gets back up onto her feet. "You're one of those heroes, aren't you?"**

 **The question has Soldier 76 stop and think about her question.**

 **Is he a hero?**

 **No.**

 **Once upon a time, Jaune Arc may have been a hero for all of Remnant, but he died years ago. Now, all that's left is Soldier 76 and he is anything but a hero.**

 **Knowing his answer, Soldier 76 looks at the little girl from over his shoulder. "Not anymore." Having answered, the vigilante walks away and vanishes into the shadows.**

 **Ruby's smile never wavers as she watches her saviour walk away.**

 **"I think you are."**

The screen fades, allowing everyone to take a break and review over what they just witnessed.

"Looks like vomit boy got to be a hero after all" said Yang, smiling while giving her little sister a hug. She's pretty happy to see her little sister get saved in the end, especially by Jaune of all people. Although, that version did give her a chill or two from watching him _work._

"At first, I was put off by him, but I'm happy to see that Jaune ended up as the hero in the end" said Ruby, smiling over the memory of the older version of Jaune saving her younger self.

Raven closes her eyes in thought. She has been impressed with this version of Jaune Arc. A lot more than the Joker. As Soldier 76, he didn't feel any fear towards his enemies and more importantly, he didn't feel merciful. He took each thug down with brutal efficiency, showing off a great deal of strength and intimidation, even in his old age. And she _liked_ every last second of it.

Spectre turns towards the audience. "So, who's next?"

"I'll do it!" declared Ruby, raising her hand up like as if she's in class.

Yang chuckles in amusement, Weiss facepalms in embarrassment and Blake shakes her head in grief.

Spectre nods. "Very well. Choose a universe" he asked, waving towards the shelves full of crystals.

Ruby uses her Semblance to appear in front of the shelves on the left, poking her cheek as she looks over the hundreds and thousands of crystals that house a universe. Nervously, she turns to address the Spectre. "Can you show me a universe where Jaune isn't... unhinged?" she asked, hoping to not insult the godlike being.

Spectre tilts its head to the side before nodding. "Very well. Choose any of the blue crystals."

Nodding and smiling, Ruby over the shelves and picks up one of the blue crystals that is closest to her. "I choose this one!"

Spectre nods and floats the crystals out of Ruby's grasp and into the screen.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"Bandit King?"**

 **"It doesn't mean he's the king of a real country. It just means he's the greatest bandit there ever was!"**


	4. Bandit King?

**Author's Note: Apologies. I was going to make a Sherlock chapter but it ended up being too long.**

 **If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read the reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Bandit King Jing.**

 **xXx**

 **In the desert of Vacuo, there is a small city that is infamous for housing nothing but criminals, ranging from bandits, thieves and even killers. Because of the majority of the city's residents being criminals, the city goes by the suitable name, Capital of Thieves. There is no police authority within the city as they have been thrown out years ago. Now, the Capital of Thieves is under the control of Mayor Cognac who runs the city with his endless riches and army of thugs.**

"No police authority whatsoever? It must be complete anarchy" said Ironwood, disliking the thought of an entire city being run by criminals. Why would anyone want to live in a city that's under the control of criminals?

Roman smirks at the idea. "Sounds like my type of city." Neo's smirk shows that she's in agreement with him, knowing that if such a city does exist, Roman would find himself on the very top pretty fast.

 **Recently, the city has gotten even more populated as hundreds of bandits and thieves enter the Kingdom with the sole purpose of stealing Mayor Cognac's biggest treasure, the Double Mermaids. There are even rumors that the Bandit King himself is going to show up for the chance to steal the Double Mermaids.**

Raven's head perks up when she hears that someone is known as the Bandit King. Being known as the Bandit Queen herself, she would honestly like to meet the person who can fill the big shoes of her counterpart.

"You think that Jaune is this Bandit King?" asked a grinning Nora.

Blake shakes her head. "Doubtful. This universe is suppose to show an unhinged version of Jaune. I don't think Jaune could be a Bandit King if he's unhinged, if only by a little bit.

"You don't know that" replied Nora, puffing her cheeks out in annoyance. Fearless leader can be anything he wants when he puts his mind to it! If he wants to be Bandit King, he can be Bandit King!

 **And far out in the distance of the Kingdom is Jaune Arc, smiling and basking in the heat of Vacuo. His blue trenchcoat flutters against the cooling wind as a crow latches itself to his shoulder.**

Qrow blinks when he sees the crow on Jaune's shoulder, easily recognizing it. How can he not recognize it when he can turn into that very same bird whenever he wants. A quick glance shows him that Ozpin, Glynda, Ironwood and even Raven are thinking the exact same thing. _"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if a few of these universes showed everyone something that Ozpin would prefer to be kept secret."_

"Didn't think it was possible, but Vomit boy can work a trenchcoat" complimented Yang, admitting that Jaune looks pretty good in one. She just might get one for his birtday, just to see what he looks like in one.

 **Once he enters the city, Jaune and his crow look around, finding themselves in the marketplace.**

 **"City of thieves, huh? Nothing but scoundrels and low lives" said the crow, surprising a few nearby passerbys when they hear the animal speak.**

"Uncle Qrow is a talking bird!" laughed Ruby while pointing at the screen. Yang copies her younger sister and starts laughing as well, recognizing the bird's voice as the same as their uncle's

A tick mark starts to grow in the corner of Qrow's skull, finding his nieces laughing a little bit insulting to his pride. _"I bet they wouldn't be laughing if they knew that I can actually turn into a bird."_

Ozpin sighs in relief. At first, he was worried that the people around him would learn of secrets he would like to keep hidden, but it seems like nobody is taking any actual heed, believing that it's only based in the universe they're watching. _"That's a lot off my mind."_

 **"Along with their pretty wives. Right, Qrow?" smirked Jaune, knowing Qrow's tendency to going after pretty women. If they ever meet a pretty human woman who doesn't mind bedding a bird, it'll be a match made in heaven. Jaune perks up when he hears two guys in a nearby bar talk.**

 **"What the hell is this?" asked a bandit, holding up a poster he found on his table. Giving it a glance, he sees that it's a wanted poster, but instead of someones face, it shows a picture of a golden crown. Underneath the picture reads the words,** _ **Bandit King.**_

 **"They say everyone is chasing after this Bandit King."**

 **"The Bandit King?"**

 **"The Bandit King doesn't mean he's the king of a real country. It just means that he's the best bandit there ever was!"**

 **"He's already a legend. They say he can steal the stars from the sky if he wanted to."**

"Steal the stars out of the sky? If I meet someone who can actually do that, I would kiss them" pointed out Roman. Being one of, if not the best thief in Remnant, Roman has stolen everything from cars, Bullheads, jewels and once, a dog. Stealing stars? Not so much. He honestly wouldn't know where to begin. _"For my to do list"_ he thought, smirking.

Neo snickers at the idea of someone actually stealing the stars, just so Roman has to kiss them.

 **Having lost interest in the conversation, Jaune walks away to continue with his business. Of course, Qrow has something to say about their current location.**

 **"Geez, you could almost suffocate on the toxic cloud of B.O. that reeks from these muscle heads. Come on, Jaune. Let's find a town that has more chicks" said Qrow, looking around as Jaune walks into the busy city plaza.**

 **Jaune looks around the crowd of people and spots someone of interest. "There's one" Jaune said, pointing in front of him.**

 **Qrow's head perks up as he follows the direction of his partner's finger. Only to deadpan at Jaune when it's revealed that the woman in question is some short old hag in black robes and holding onto a creepy staff.**

 **Jaune smirks in amusement. "Come on, Qrow. Haven't you heard that women like wine only get better with age?"**

 **Qrow stands up as tall as he can on Jaune's shoulder to glare down at him. "Wine is one thing but sour grapes, Jaune?"**

"Aren't you being a bit shallow, brother?" asked Raven, looking over at brother with a little heat in her eyes. She isn't the only one as several women, even Yang, are glaring at Qrow like as if he's scum of the earth.

"What are you all glaring at me for? Glare at the bird, not me!" he defended, pointing at the large screen. Why can't they understand that it's the bird who made the rude comment, not him! He at least has the brains to not say such a thing in the presence of wrathful females, no matter how much he agrees with his counterpart.

Pyrrha and Ruby ignores them as they smile while watching Jaune. "I'm liking this version of Jaune" said Ruby while Pyrrha nods her head in agreement. So far, they've seen Jaune act like an actual human being. He isn't a crazed criminal in clown face paint or a hardened vigilante. He's calm, collective and from what they've seen so far, pretty charming.

 **Before Jaune can reply, a stranger snickers while running around him. Jaune looks over his shoulder as the man runs off into the distance, noticing how he feels a little bit lighter than he did a second ago.**

 **"Hey there little man. I hope you didn't expect to be leaving here with your money" said a passerby, smirking when he sees another naive kid get robbed by one of his fellow thieves in the city.**

 **Figuring out what he means, Qrow spins around to glare at the retreating thief. "Come back with that thief!" Almost everyone in the city plaza turns to face Qrow, wondering if it's one of them he was calling for.**

 **Jaune sighs in annoyance, not because he just got robbed, but because of Qrow's lack of observation. "Qrow, everyone here is a thief."**

"Being in a city that calls itself the Capital of Thieves, it's no surprise that he would eventually get robbed" pointed out Emerald, coughing so she can hide her smirk. She always did enjoy swiping hard earned lien out of the pockets of naive fools and seeing someone else do it brings a familiar buzz to her skin.

Cinder hums to herself. "For someone who just got robbed, he's acting awfully calm about it."

 **"I guess you wished you were somewhere else so you could hold onto ya cash" smirked the criminal, chuckling to his hearts content.**

 **Jaune smiles back, completely undisturbed by the criminal's attempt to eg him on. "Don't worry about me, pal." Raising his right arm, Jaune brandishes a hidden blade that pops out of his sleeve, showing that it's attached to his arm. "I think I got it covered."**

 **Looking to his left, Jaune sees a large statue of Mayor Cognac not too far away from him. While the statue looks to have seen better days, it still shows every detail of the mayor, including his wide stomach and mohawk hairstyle. With a single swipe of his blade, Jaune cuts the legs of the statue at such an angle that it starts to fall towards the direction of the fleeing thief. Many in the plaza cry out in shock and awe as the statue starts tumbling down, throwing up dirt and dust in all directions.**

 **The fleeing thief looks over his shoulder and cries out in surprise when he sees the statue fall towards his direction. He's far too late to dodge at this point, collapsing when the raised fist of the statue falls on top of him. Groaning in pain, the thief pushes himself to his knees, feeling thankful that his Aura managed to take the brunt of the damage. Jaune steps into his vision while rubbing the top of his blade. Qrow has a smug smile in his face, having enjoyed watching the thief go down like that.**

"Okay, I admit, that was cool" said Roman, finding the whole event entertaining. The kid didn't do anything he couldn't, but it was still fun to watch.

Neo nods her head in agreement, licking her lips over watching this version of Jaune Arc. He's someone who is always in control and if he ever loses his control, he'll simply take it back. She likes that in a man. _"Maybe I should give my universe's Jaune a visit."_

Yang grins with a tinge of pink decorating her cheeks. _"Vomit boy doesn't look half bad when he isn't stumbling over his own two feet."_

Pyrrha senses something wrong and glares at Yang and Neo, although she doesn't exactly know why she's doing it.

 **The thief grits his teeth in anger. "Want a piece of me kid?" he growled in a threatening manner.**

 **Jaune answers by swinging his blade faster than the thief can see. The next thing the thief knows, his shirt falls to the floor in pieces, spilling all of the jewels he managed to steal from the kid.**

"He's young, but is quite skilled for his age" mentioned Ironwood, impressed over the young man's movements. If not for his years of training as a soldier, he would've missed out on Jaune's movements.

 **Qrow laughs as the thief finally figures out that he stole from the wrong person. Sweating and shaking in fear, the thief piles up all of Jaune's jewels on the floor and pushes them towards him. "S-Sorry about that. I was only borrowing them."**

 **Ignoring the thief's terrible lie, Jaune crouches down and uses his blade to wrap the silver chain of one of the jewels in the pile. "I really couldn't care about those jewels, but no one touches this one" said Jaune, showing the green jewel that's wrapped around his blade. The jewel is a beautiful work of art, showing the beautiful face of a woman in the centre of its green shell.**

Being a Schnee, Weiss has spent her life with luxuries that people can only dream of. Everything from rare Dust, expensive clothing and jewelry have always been a part of her daily life. Because of her life of luxuries, she has learned to distinguish expensive items from the fake ones.

With this skill, she can tell that the jewel in Jaune's hand is something not even she owns in her jewelry box at home. Her eyes almost sparkle as she stares up at the beautiful green jewel. While she isn't one to get more than what she already had, she wouldn't mind getting her hands on that jewel.

"It's beautiful" gasped Pyrrha in awe. She has seen many pieces of jewelry in her young life, but she has never seen something so beautiful. _"I've never seen such a beautiful jewel in all my life! It must be worth hundreds of million of lien."_

 **While Jaune looks as laid back as usual, there's a sudden sternness in his tone of voice that causes the thief to shudder.**

 **Having dealt with the thief, Jaune decides to look around for some information. Taking a bite out of an apple, Jaune looks around to find something that could lead him to the right direction.**

 **"Not too bad kid."**

 **Looking down, Jaune and Qrow see the same old woman from before. "Eh~, it's that old hag from before" said Qrow in disgust.**

 **The old woman's smile doesn't once falter over hearing Qrow's rude remark. "You should watch your mouth around a young lady."**

 **Neither Qrow or the old woman notice the knowing look in Jaune's eyes as he stares at the elderly lady. "Know anything about The Double Mermaids?" He points a thumb over his shoulder towards a man behind him who has an oversized head. "It's suppose to be a jewel that's as big as this bonehead."**

"That guy's head is huge!" cried Nora, raising her arms into the air for emphasis. Nobody can deny that as the guy's head looks as big as Ironwood's entire body.

Glynda narrows her eyes at the screen. "If he's after the Double Mermaids, I'm guessing that Mr. Arc is a bandit like everyone else."

Nora turns to smirk at Blake. The Faunus glares at the orange-haired girl in a challenging manner. "Just because he's a bandit doesn't mean he's the Bandit King."

 **With a big head that he has, the man also has a set of big ears which hears Jaune's insult as clear as day. "WHAT DID YOU CALL ME!?" he yelled, spilling steam out of his ears an nose from the amount of rage he's in. He charges at Jaune, but the young man simply kicks the man's feet out from under him, without even looking. Having lost his balance, the man falls off his feet and off of the tower's level, falling all the way down to the bottom floor.**

 **Ignoring the bigheaded guy, the elderly lady turns to Jaune with a curious expression. "Do I know about the Double Mermaids? Of course. Every crook in the city is hoping to get their grubby mits on it."**

 **"So all these stooges are after the Double Mermaids as well?" asked Qrow.**

 **The elderly lady points her staff upwards. "Look above ya."**

 **Jaune and Qrow look up to see the top of the city's tower. "It's on top of that tower?" asked Qrow.**

 **"Mayor Cognac holds all of his sacred treasures up there. It's locked up tighter than a drum. No one can get in, but still, everyone tries to get the Double Mermaids. Cognac captures anyone who tries to break into his tower and in return, claims their treasure as his own. He just keeps getting richer and richer. The King of Swindlers, he is! If that isn't bad enough, he makes everyone who lives here pay his overpriced taxes" explained the elderly lady, hiding little of the disgust she feels for the man.**

 **"Sounds like this Cognac has one hell of a system going. He's really milking everyone dry here" remarked Qrow.**

 **Jaune smirks while looking up at the tower.** _ **"At least I now know where the Double Mermaid is"**_ **he thought, planning on how to steal the Double Mermaid from under the mayor's nose. "He may be a creep, but he has the goods."**

 **"So is that good or bad for us?" asked Qrow, although he looks as ready to steal from Cognac as Jaune does. "So, is there really two Double Mermaids?"**

 **"There are, but Cognac has only managed to get one. It's his most prized possession."**

 **Jaune turns to face the elderly lady with a charming smile and a knowing look in his eyes.** _ **"I wonder..."**_

Ozpin raises a brow when he notices something peculiar about the alternate version of his student. _"For someone so young, he appears to be quite wise for his age"_

 **"For info, go to the bar named, Dragon Pow. There, you will meet an old veteran bandit by the name of Vodka" informed the elderly lady who never once loses her smile.**

 **Jaune nods and starts to walk away. "See you around. And thanks."**

 **Once he finds the entrance of the bar, Jaune sidesteps from the doorway when an undressed bandit is thrown out of the bar, unconscious. Without looking back at the mugged bandit, Jaune enters the bar and first notices the lack of light in the place. The bar is mostly lit by cheap candles while several of the nearby tables are being used for either food or gambling. The smell of smoke and cheap alcohol fills Jaune's senses, but he ignores them as he looks over the bar. "I'm liking the atmosphere of this place, Qrow."**

 **At this point, Qrow has already flown off of his shoulder to flirt with two pretty women by the bar who are wearing dresses that look to be a size too small for them. Not that Jaune's complaining, but he prefers if Qrow could keep his head in the game.**

"Here that P-Money. Now you know what vomit boy likes" teased Yang, making Pyrrha's face blush an atomic red over the images displaying in her head.

Weiss blushes as well, but in disgust and embarrassment. "H-How shameful!"

"I gotta ask, how does a bird find human women attractive? Shouldn't he be attracted to other birds?" asked a curious Mercury.

Qrow turns green over the mental images of him being attracted to anything with feathers. Ironwood notices this and smirks, enjoying the drunk's suffering.

 **Spotting Vodka isn't too hard, seeing as there's only one man in the entire joint who looks like a veteran bandit. With an eyepatch covering his right eye and a long bushy beard, he looks like the ideal picture of someone who has faced a lot in his time and has the scars to prove it. It turns out that he caught Vodka while he's eating dinner with members of his bandit crew.**

 **Being the gentleman that he is, Jaune decides to introduce himself. He does this by walking up to their table and taking a piece of meat off of one of their plates and eating it. "Are you the bandit, Vodka?"**

 **Vodka stares at the young man in the trenchcoat for a moment, blinking his lone eye to make sure he isn't actually seeing some foolish kid walk up to him while asking for his name. "Who wants to know?"**

 **Taking that as a yes, Jaune smiles. "You were easy to spot in here. You stick out among these other scallywags. One who has been an easy target. At least, for Cognac anyway." Jaune's smile shows he is either oblivious to his insult towards the elderly bandit or he simply doesn't give a damn.**

Yang's interest only increases when she watches Jaune insult a dangerous bandit. She can't help but compare it to the time she went to Junior's club and wrecked it. _"I wonder if I can help vomit boy with his confidence issue?"_

 **Vodka's crew quickly step away from the table, preparing for Vodka's angry outburst and they're not disappointed when it comes.**

 **"WHAT DID YOU SAY YOU LITTLE PUNK BRAT! DO YOU KNOW WHO YOU'RE TALKING TO!?"**

 **Jaune ignores Vodka's crew as they try to warn him to back away, claiming that their boss is one of the best thieves out there.**

 **Vodka takes Jaune's insult personally and opens his vest to show millions of lien worth of jewels hanging off of it. "Check this! My magnificent collection." Noticing the young man's lack of awe, Vodka decides to show off his greatest treasure. "I know something that will astound you. There's no other like it in the whole world and I hide it here for safekeeping" told Vodka, pointing a thumb to his mouth. He opens his mouth to show off the brilliant ruby that he has lodged in one of the gaps in his mouth.**

 **Jaune lifts up a hand and smirks. "You mean this one?" asked Jaune, holding up the jewel that he found in Vodka's mouth when he wasn't looking. While it may be impressive, it isn't anything special. "I thought it was a cavity so I took the liberty to removing it" said Jaune, enjoying to absolutely flabbergasted expression on the proud bandit's face.**

 **As Vodka's bandits wonder about how Jaune managed to steal Vodka's prized jewel out of his mouth without anyone seeing, Qrow can be found by the bar, doing a good job on wooing the two women from earlier.**

Qrow makes sure to take notes of what his alternate self is doing. With his Semblance, he never is lucky with women, but maybe by learning from himself, he might actually get somewhere with them.

Roman actually looks surprised over Jaune's accomplishment. He isn't even sure if he could steal a jewel out of someone's mouth without them knowing. Well, unless he were to knock them out before doing so.

Nora's smug grin only increases in size, enjoying the further proof that shows Jaune is the Bandit King.

As much as she hates the smug grin on the hammer-wielding Huntress-in-training's face, Blake is finding it hard to claim that Jaune isn't the Bandit King.

 **Vodka pushes himself onto his feet, getting angrier by the second. "Cheeky punk! You knicked my precious treasure!"**

 **Jaune smirks and aims. "If this is precious, let me ask for a more spectacular one." With a flick of his thumb, the jewel flies across the air and back into Vodka's open mouth, although the elderly bandit makes the mistake of swallowing it. "You don't have to thank me."**

 **Enraged, Vodka's crew brandishes their swords and swings at the young brat who embarrassed their leader. However, Jaune backflips into the air with his arms folded across his chest. Landing on top of the bar, Jaune surprises Qrow and scares the two women. "Time to go to work, Qrow."**

 **Without waiting for Qrow's reply, Jaune grabs the bird by his neck. The dark bar glows an emerald green as Jaune and Qrow combine in both body and soul. Qrow's black wings enlarge in size as spines crawls across Jaune's right arm and latches onto it with an iron-like grip that he has grown use to. Within seconds, Qrow's body joins into Jaune's right arm, forming their most powerful weapon.**

 **"Give me a Qrow Royal!" yelled Jaune as both of their combined Auras form a powerful ball of energy in Qrow's mouth before he fires it at the bandits. The result is forming a deep hole in the middle of the bar while also knocking out all of the bandits, except for Vodka. The experience bandit is sitting on the floor burnt, but alive.**

 **What he did must have impressed the bandit, because he suddenly declares that he'll be Jaune's mentor.**

"Impossible! Nobody can combine their Auras like that!" claimed Ironwood, disbelieving that Jaune and the bird version of Qrow could do such a thing. After all, it has taken some of the greatest minds in Atlas to create the device that can transfer one's Aura to another, although with possible repercussions. It's what Ozpin and himself are going to use to transfer the Maiden's power from Amber to a suitable candidate in the near future.

Cinder watches the screen, intently. The combination of two different Auras has gained her interest and she makes note to remember some of the important facts.

 **Having destroyed most of the bar, Vodka decides to bring Jaune outside onto a clearing for food, ignoring the young man's protests.**

 **After making sure to keep his distance from Vodka, seeing as he appears to be anything but useful, Jaune meets the elderly lady again. "What's that thing?" he asked, pointing at a large lizard-like creature that has a massive scaly body, but six short wings. All it's doing is eating grass, seeing as it can't move because of the chain wrapped around its neck.**

 **"It's one of those valuable birds that rarely lays eggs. She's the newest addition to Cognac's collection" answered the elderly lady, feeling sympathy for the creature.**

 **Hours pass by until Vodka and his crew finally decide on a plan to make a hot air balloon so they can reach the top of Cognac's tower and steal the Double Mermaids. Instantly, Jaune knew the plan was going to fail, especially when the group of idiots decide to make a hot air gallon out of their own clothing, leaving them all naked, except for Vodka. Jaune is only proven correct when Cognac shoots down the balloon with a large crossbow.**

Raven chuckles in amusement. While original, the plan was only something idiots would take part in and she's happy to see that this version of Jaune Arc agrees with her that the plan was stupid. _"Looks like Jaune is really this universe's version of the Bandit King."_

Many in the audience cringe in disgust over seeing several naked men fall out of the sky, screaming like women.

 **Shaking his head in disappointment, Jaune turns when he hears strange sounds. Those strange sounds turns out to be coming from the lizard-like bird which has just lain an egg. However, two of Cognac's men witnesses the event take place and take the large egg to their boss, due to how valuable the egg really is. This obviously doesn't sit well for the creature as it cries out for her child.**

 **"Cognac is always separating children from their mother" muttered the elderly lady, spilling a couple droplets of tears from her eyes.**

 **Jaune notices and his suspicions are confirmed when he sees the old woman's tears.** _ **"She really is..."**_

 _"Mr. Arc knows something we aren't seeing"_ thought Ozpin. From what he understands, Jaune is only after the Double Mermaids, but he, as well as everyone watching, doesn't know what they look like. He also appears to know something about the elderly lady but what, Ozpin doesn't know.

 **With an idea in his head, Jaune steps towards the distressed lizard-like bird and places his hands on his hips. "What's wrong girl? Why are you so sad? Is it because you were never allowed to hatch your own eggs?" he asked.**

 **The lizard-like bird turns to face the human who is speaking, possessing enough intelligence to understand what he's saying.**

Many in the audience are actually surprised to see that the creature possesses such intelligence. From its appearance and size, most would think that it has the same smarts as an Ursa. In other words, no intelligence at all.

 **"Well, while we sit here, Cognac is having your egg sunnyside up" continued Jaune, watching as the creature's face morph from sorrow to slowly rising anger. "He might be making omelettes!"**

 **"What are you doing?" asked the elderly lady, wondering why the young man is torturing the distressed mother.**

 **Jaune ignores her, smiling as he hammers in the final nail to the coffin. "I think I can hear them sizzling right now!"**

 **This is all it takes to fully anger the creature who rears her head back and roars, blowing back wind, making Jaune's trenchcoat flutter. Growling, the six wings on the creature's back starts to grow in size until they are all towering over everyone.**

 _ **"There's nothing more powerful than a mother's wrath"**_ **thought Jaune, smiling.**

 _"That clever brat"_ thought Qrow, chuckling as he watches Jaune use a mother's rage to get to the top of the tower. Before Summer's death, nothing could get in her way from protecting both Ruby and Yang. Right after Ruby was born, Qrow was banned from bringing alcohol in the house, in fear of anything that could happen to her child.

At first, he thought she was joking. Nobody can separate alcohol and himself for long. They're like long lost lovers who need each other to survive. It turns out that Summer can separate him from alcohol after all, especially after catching him with his flask while in the same room as Ruby.

Ever since then, his collarbone has always had this annoying creak to it whenever it shifted.

 **Grabbing the elderly woman, Jaune runs on top of the lizard's back before it can fly off.**

 **"What are you doing? Are you bringing her as your date or something?" asked Qrow, flying after his partner.**

 **With her enlarged wings, the creature takes flight and soars through the air, snapping the chain off from its neck. This isn't unnoticed by Cognac who fires at it with a bolt from his crossbow. However, the lizard's skin proves to be too thick as the bolt shatters upon impact, not even scratching the skin's surface.**

 **With all her rage, the mother lizard crashes through the top of the tower. In the cloud of dust, Jaune manages to find the lizard's egg. "Well, I guess they didn't have time to boil it after all. Here you go girl" said Jaune, offering the large egg to the mother lizard who happily takes it into her mouth. With her child back to her, the lizard carefully places the egg onto the floor and wraps herself around it.**

"That's strangely cute" said Pyrrha, smiling as she watches the curl around her egg, lovingly.

"I want one" moaned Nora, hanging off of Ren's shoulders like a sloth. Ren lifts Nora off of him and places her back in her seat and turns back to the screen. It's no surprise that Nora is back hanging off his shoulders again within the minute.

 **Looking around the tower, Jaune waits for the dust to clear up before he sees his goal, the Double Mermaid. In the centre of the room is a large blue crystal with a young woman lying inside it, seemingly asleep. With her long black hair, cat ears and beautiful crystal-like skin, he agrees that the woman in the crystal is breathtaking. "So the stories and legends of crystallized creatures are all true. They really do exist" said Jaune in awe.**

Blake denies the heat that washes across her cheeks, even when Yang points it out for her. "What's this~. Is the kitty cat blushing over vomit boy's compliment?"

"Shut up, Yang!"

 **No one notices the elderly lady let lose a tear.**

 **"Bravo. Congratulate yourself for getting up here." Turning away from the Double Mermaid to face the voice, Jaune sees Cognac's ugly face smirking. "However, I've heard word that the Bandit King is to show up so I can't waste time playing with kids like you." Clicking his fingers, a large figure steps out of the shadows, showing itself to be a large golem with nine eyes.**

 **Jaune shows no fear, simply joining together with Qrow and firing a concentrated ball of Aura that destroys the golem and throws the surprised Cognac off his feet.**

 **The sudden spike of Aura appears to awaken the Double Mermaid as the crystal shatters, releasing the awake Mermaid from her slumber.**

 **Before Qrow can flirt with the beautiful young woman, the elderly lady runs past the flying crow, moving at speeds a woman her age shouldn't be capable of. However, the truth is revealed when the woman's face suddenly falls off, revealing the face of a much younger woman with crystal-like skin, short black hair and cat ears. She embraces the young woman, smiling in relief.**

"Mom?" muttered Blake in surprise. She hasn't been expecting to see her mother appear, especially being disguised as an elderly woman.

"I didn't see that one coming" said Mercury while Emerald and Ruby nods in agreement.

 **"Oh, mother" muttered the younger woman, smiling and embracing her counterpart.**

 **"Blake" sighed the older woman, feeling so much joy for finally having her daughter back to her.**

 **Jaune smiles as he watches the two women be reunited. "So that's the Double Mermaids. Mother and daughter."**

 **The mother turns and smiles at both Jaune and Qrow. "Thank you. Thank you for returning my one true treasure" she said, fully grateful in every shape of the word. Ever since Cognac took Blake away, she has never been the same ever since. It brings a warmth back into her heart now that she has her daughter back to her.**

Blake clenches her fists across her lap, feeling guilty all of a sudden. Years ago, she ran off to join the White Fang, leaving behind her parents in Menagerie without any way for them to contact her. Even after she left the White Fang, she never visited home, preferring to head straight to Beacon Academy instead.

Watching her mother's counterpart worry so much over herself has broken down her walls, making her feel shameful over her actions. _"I bet mom is worrying about me as well. Dad too._ Unclenching her fists, Blake sighs. _"When this is all done and over with, I'll go visit them. It's the least I can do for them."_

 **"Mother" sniffed Blake, spilling a tear in joy. The tear slides down Blake's face before falling towards the floor, but before it lands, it solidifies into a beautiful gem that's in the shape of a teardrop.**

 **The teardrop bounces off the floor and rolls to Jaune's feet. Picking it up, Jaune smiles while he inspects the jewel.** _ **"While I didn't get the Double Mermaids, I did get something just as good."**_

 **Cognac watches everything take place from his spot on the floor. "W-What is this? She use to cry before, but it never turned into a jewel like that. It isn't fair!"**

 **Jaune ignores the corrupt mayor and walks towards the hole in the wall, seeing the sun start to rise in the distance. Stopping by the edge of the hole, Jaune looks at the teardrop jewel in between his fingers. "There can be tears of sadness or tears of joy. But they are far from the same."**

 **Cognac stares at Jaune's back and watches as the boy jumps off the tower. His eyes widen and mouth turns agape as he figures out the young boy's identity. After all, nobody else could have possibly taken away his Double Mermaids like he just did. "N-No it can't be! Y-You're the BANDIT KING!"**

Everyone is already gossiping over the universe's version of Jaune before the screen can fully fade away.

"I told you Jaune was the Bandit King" told Nora, feeling smug over being right in her assumption.

Blake ignores Nora while thinking of different methods she can use to apologize to her mother and father. _"I guess I know what I'll be doing for the summer break."_

"Jaune was so cool in that one" said Ruby with a smile that almost seems to shine. While he was a bandit in the universe, he wasn't an evil one. He stole from the big baddy and reunited Blake with her mother. That's not something a villain would do.

Pyrrha nods her head in agreement. "I agree. Jaune was quite charming in that universe, was he not?"

Weiss folds her arms and scoffs, turning her head away from the screen. "So what? He was still a bandit, meaning that he's no better than a plain thief."

"He's the Bandit King. I wouldn't compare that title as the same as being a simple thief" pointed out Ren, defending his teammate from the Schnee heiress who seems to have something against his team leader. He can somewhat understand that she's aggravated over Jaune's constant flirting, but that gives her no excuse to continuously mock his team leader.

"Although, we've only seen Jaune Arc play as criminals in every universe" mentioned Ironwood. Nobody can disagree with the Atlesian General, since he only speaks the truth. In the three universes they've watched, Jaune has either been an insane clown bank robber, a hardened vigilante or a charming Bandit King. Not exactly the most law-abiding citizens.

Roman and Neo are going over suggestions on techniques they can use to steal something out of someone's mouth.

Spectre faces the audience once more, asking for who wants to choose a universe themselves.

Before Yang can raise her hand up, Weiss stands up and walks towards the shelf without a single word to suggest she wants a turn. Instead, she walks over to a shelf and simply takes a violet crystal into her hand, being curious over the crystal ever since she first saw it. She immediately regrets her decision when the searing heat coming off the crystal burns her hand, making her drop the crystal. "Why is it so hot!?" cried Weiss, holding her burnt hand. Almost immediately, her Aura starts healing the burns on her palm.

Spectre uses his power to catch the crystal before it can hit the floor and floats it towards the screen. "Apologies. The violet crystals tend to... react to Jaune's powers in different manners" said the otherworldly being, sounding not any bit apologetic from his tone of voice.

In a huff, Weiss sits back down on her seat, ignoring Ruby's comforting words and dreading Yang's teasing laughter.

Ozpin hums in thought while taking a sip from his endless coffee cup. _"I wonder what he means by reacting to Mr. Arc's powers."_

The violet crystal enters the screen, making the familiar ripple pattern before shining a bright light on the screen.

Everyone notices how the temperature of the room seems to have risen a few degrees.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"Are you really the same barkeep? You're acting completely different than you did before. Eh, you're not a human, are you?"**

 **"I am a human. But, I'm also the one who stands at the pinnacle of all races."**


	5. Sunshine

**If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **The Seven Deadly Sins.**

 **xXx**

 **For the past few years, Jaune has continued to follow the same pattern so he can maintain his bar,** _ **My Sweet Gluttony.**_ **In honour of the love of his life, he named the bar after her.**

"Oh~, vomit boy has a love of his life, huh?" said Yang, grinning at the thought of it being her.

Blake furrows her brows in thought. "If so, why call it _My Sweet Gluttony?"_

Ruby shrugs her shoulders. "Maybe she's just a glutton?" she answered, unhelpfully.

Qrow whistles when he looks at the bar that is being run by Jaune. Being the alcoholic that he is, he has been in plenty of bars in his life as a Huntsman, but he has never seen any as nice as that one. Everything from the furniture to the walls is made of solid rock, yet it still has a comfortable feel to it. "Now that's my type of bar" whistled Qrow, taking a drink from his flask.

Glynda looks at Qrow from the corner of her eye. _"All he has been doing since we got here is drink, but he doesn't even look a little bit tipsy. I wonder why?"_

Cinder and Raven narrow their eyes as they stare at the screen. Due to the both of them being either the Spring or Fall Maiden, they could sense something powerful coming from the violet crystal that the Schnee heiress picked out. If either of them were to explain it in detail, it would be like sensing the power of the sun. In other words, it's hot as hell and has unlimited power. They can't blame the Schnee for getting her hand burnt for mishandling a crystal with so much power in it.

Both ignore the comfortable looking pub and stare at the new universe's version of Jaune Arc who is setting up bottles from behind the bar. Honestly, both of them are unimpressed with what they see.

So far, each version of Jaune Arc has been interesting in some shape or form. He was an insane, but clever clown criminal in one, a rough and hardened vigilante in another and in the previous one, he was known as the world's greatest bandit. Each version had power of their own in some shape or form.

This universe's version of Jaune Arc is nothing like them. He looks to be in his early forties, but has the figure and stature so weak and thin that it looks like a gentle breeze could probably kill him off. His appearance isn't anything special either, seeing as he's wearing a simple white button up shirt, red bow tie and a blue vest. To make his appearance even more plain looking, he is wearing a pair of glasses that are thick enough to hide his eyes behind the lenses.

 _"I don't get it. I sensed something powerful from that crystal, but it clearly isn't from Arc"_ thought Raven, biting her lip in frustration. There has been an endless amount of power in that crystal so it must be coming from somewhere in the universe. Believing that power is everything, she wants to see who holds such power in them and if possible, search for them in her own universe to see if they're real and recruit them into her tribe.

"Looks at fearless leader's moustache" pointed out Nora in awe of seeing her leader with a thick moustache.

Pyrrha looks over the universe's version of her partner and smiles. _"He looks just like my partner, only older."_ Pyrrha blushes as she looks at Jaune's face. _"I wonder if Jaune would be against growing a moustache?"_

 **Imagine Jaune's surprise when the door to his remote tavern actually opens. Ever since he first set up the tavern all those years ago, he has never once gotten any customers. It's probably because he decided to set up in the middle of a mountain range in Mistral with no signs of civilization for miles.**

 **"Uh, I-I bid you w-welcome to** _ **M-My Sweet Gluttony"**_ **he greeted, awkwardly.**

"He's even more awkward than our own doofus, even stupider if he thought it was a good idea to set up a bar in the middle of a freaking mountain!" exclaimed Weiss.

"I'd still go" said Qrow, shrugging his shoulders.

"Calm down, Weiss-cream. Don't melt on us just yet" said Yang, trying to calm down the Schnee.

 **"Is this a tavern... inside a cave?" asked Winter Schnee, walking into the tavern while on her last legs. Carrying two people on her back and taking a boulder to the face tends to take a lot out of a person.**

"W-Winter?" stuttered Weiss in shock, looking at her older sister who has looked a lot better in the past. This version of her sister is bleeding from the forehead with cuts and bruises all over her arms and legs. "Why isn't her Aura healing her?" Weiss asked her questions towards Spectre.

"In this universe, humanity wasn't destroyed and so, everyone possesses Magic, not Aura.

 _"What on Remnant does he mean by that?"_ wondered Ironwood, trying to get a read on the otherworldly being, but failing to learn anything.

Ozpin's grip on his coffee mug has tightened so much that a crack has appeared on its surface. Ozpin is the only person in the audience who knows what Spectre means by that phrase. _"Did Salem not challenge the Gods? Did she fail in uniting humanity to fight the Gods for her? Or did my own universe's version not perish under illness and start the terrible cycle?"_ There are many ways the past could have changed the future and any of them could have stopped Salem from challenging the Gods, angering them so much that they destroyed all of humanity for the first time.

 **Jaune rubs the back of his head and smiles while chuckling. In Winter's ears, it sounds more like a girlish giggle than a man's chuckle. "That's right. Although, you can imagine it's usually deserted."**

 **"We didn't come here for a drink. These two are wounded. Could you shelter us here for a-" Winter doesn't get to finish as she loses the remnants of her strength and collapses, dropping the two people on her back, Qrow and Summer.**

 **"Oh goodness!" cried out Jaune, running over to inspect the three fallen people. "Those are some serious injuries" he gasped, looking over Winter's injuries.**

 **"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. Help them" begged Winter through pain.**

 **Jaune turns to look at the two other people and notices something familiar about the shirtless man with dark hair. Said man opens his eye and instantly recognizes the thin man in front of him. "Wait a minute, I know you!"**

 **Jaune takes a step back in fright when he hear's Qrow's threatening voice.**

"Looks like it's my time to shine" said Qrow, smirking as he looks over the universe's version of himself. Thankfully, he isn't a talking crow.

"Mom's there as well" said Ruby, although with less enthusiasm than her uncle. It's because she doesn't like the look of pain on her mother's unconscious body. "She's hurt..."

"I'm sure she'll be fine. She's under Jaune's care now, she'll be safe" said Yang, putting a comforting hand on her sister's shoulder to ease her worries.

"Unless he's actually a psycho like the Joker who'll stab them in the back when they're not looking" joked Roman. From the silence and glares he's receiving, he starts to think that the joke might have not been appropriate. "What? Too soon?"

 **Winter struggles to push herself off the floor. "He's the Fox Sin of the Seven Deadly Sins. Name is Qrow."**

 **Jaune gasps. "W-Wait a second. Does that make you the Huntress who captured him?" Jaune takes several cowardly steps backwards until his back hits the front of his bar. "D-D-Does that mean you've come here to arrest me next?"**

"Jaune's a criminal again?" deadpanned Blake in disbelief. She's starting to see a pattern with these universes since Jaune has been on the other side of the law in each and every one of them so far. She's got to wonder if her own version of Jaune is somehow a criminal as well. Than a picture of his goofy smile appears in her mind and she shakes the idea away. _"I don't think Jaune has a single bad bone in his body."_

"Neo, remind me to introduce myself to this Arc kid. I think I might be able to get us another partner in crime. What'd ya think?" asked Roman, smirking as Neo throws him a thumbs up.

"Glynda, please make note to keep Mr. Arc away from Mr. Torchwick" said Ozpin, casting a slight glare at the master criminal from the edge of his eyesight.

Glynda nods and openly glares at the master criminal and his partner-in-crime. "My pleasure."

"So, I'm a member of these so-called Seven Deadly Sins, huh?" muttered Qrow before he smirks. "I like the sound of that. Sounds badass."

"Hell yeah it does" Yang agreed with her uncle. "I wonder who the other members are?"

"It would make sense that Jaune is also member, would it not?" asked Ren, since Jaune is suppose play a big part in the universe.

Weiss would've usually made a distasteful comment about Jaune and his weakened self, but she's too distracted to watching her usually strong and proud sister look so weak. _"She's practically on the verge of death! Who could've done such a thing to Winter?"_

Raven's frustration only grows as she witnesses this universe's version of Jaune Arc cower in fear of a weak and injured Huntress. _"This can't be right! Where's the source of the power I sensed before!?"_

 **Winter manages to get back up to her feet and lift the weakened Qrow and unconscious Summer over her shoulder, although with a lot of struggling on her part. "Got a guilty conscious or something?" she chuckled. "The Sins have been officially cleared of all suspicion."**

 **Jaune's cowering comes to a halt as he straightens his back. "Y-You're saying that the Seven Deadly Sins no longer need to stay in hiding?"**

 **"Yea. In fact, these days, they're being called heroes" answered Winter with a smile, thinking back to how the Seven Deadly Sins proved their innocence and saved Vale from its own destruction. It's ironic that they're being called heroes, since they are all known to have caused crimes because of a certain sin they're named after. In Qrow's case, it's because of his greed.**

 **Winter's answer brings a tear to Jaune's eye, making Winter look at him in worry. "Are you alright?"**

 **"Thank goodness" muttered Jaune before running towards Qrow. "Mr. Qrow! Is Ms. Goodwitch... is Ms. Goodwitch safe as well? Tell me!"**

 **Qrow smiles. "She's with the Captain. Safe and sound" he answered, much to the relief of Jaune.**

 **"I'm so glad."**

Glynda blinks in surprise in hearing her student's alternate self worry about her so much. _"From the way he spoke, it sounds like my other self is a member of these Seven Deadly Sins. It also shows that Mr. Arc is rather close to these Seven Deadly Sins. He could be a friend of theirs, or a fellow member, no matter how unlikely"_ she thought. She doesn't want to think bad about her student in any way, but she can't deny that this universe's version of her student appears awfully weak and cowardly, even when compared to her own universe's version.

Nora and Ruby inch away from Pyrrha as she growls, unknowingly releasing a dark aura around herself.

 **"Anyway, we're being chased and we need a place to hide" told Winter, remembering about those two... monsters that are likely still outside somewhere.**

 **"Seriously? Chased by whom?" asked Jaune, feeling his bones shiver at the thought of some bad guys showing up at his tavern to cause trouble.**

 **"Look, there's no time to explain right now. You've got to help us!"**

 **"V-Very well" answered Jaune, leading Winter to behind his bar where there's a large safe door where he keeps his stock. "You can hide in the pantry" he said, opening the door for them.**

 **"We really owe you one" thanked Winter, walking into the pantry. She doesn't even care about the lack of light when Jaune closes the door behind them. She only hopes that it's enough to keep those Demons at bay.**

 **Jaune closes and locks the door after the Huntress, only to nearly jump out of his skin when he feels the mountain shake and a strong breeze blow into his tavern. Looking over his shoulder, Jaune suddenly cries out when he sees that one side of the mountain has been cut off, leaving a giant gaping hole in his tavern. And standing on the edge of the hole are the ones responsible for it. One of them looks like a young human woman with straight lavender hair and wearing a skin tight bodysuit. Floating around her levitating body is a spiral made out of literal Darkness. The other is far more intimidating figure as he looks like a tall red suit of armour with a long spear in one of his hands.**

 **"We found you."**

Everyone in the audience watch in shocked silence after witnessing the creature in red armour cut a mountain clean in half with his spear.

"Dear Brothers" muttered Ozpin, having forgotten his coffee mug in favour of keeping his mouth agape. He has lived many lives in the past and seen many strange things, but he has never seen someone possess such inhuman strength before. He knows that Salem and a Maiden could destroy a mountain with ease, but that's by using their Magic, not physical strength.

If anyone asks, Yang will deny that she gulped when she saw the creature cut apart a mountain.

"T-They're not human" muttered Weiss with obvious fear showing on her face. How can she not be afraid of such a creature when it can cut apart mountains like as if they're made of soft butter?

Raven finally smirks, witnessing actual power in the universe and she isn't disappointed. _"Incredible! The power of the crystal had nothing to do with the Arc brat. It's in the possession of those monsters."_

 **"Hold on..."**

 **"What? They're not here?"**

 **"That's rather strange. I was certain this was their location" said the female Demon who goes by the name, Melascula.**

 **Her ally, Galand steps forward and leans his tall body over the bar where he can see a small human shake and quiver in fear. Nothing new there, but there is a smell in the air that he's liking. "Hm~. Something smells delicious."**

 **Galand soon finds out that the source of the delicious smell is the alcohol in the bar. Taking a barrel, he downs the contents into his throat, enjoying the taste. "That's good! Who would've thought that booze would come so far in three thousand years time?" he said, finishing a whole barrel of beer in seconds.**

"Wait a second, they're three thousand years old?" asked Blake in shock. While they're obviously not human, she didn't think anyone could live as long as that.

"Gotta say, she looks good for her age" said Yang, trying to somehow ignore the tension in the room. Three thousand year old monsters with enough power to cut apart mountains? She's suddenly thankful that they don't belong in her own universe.

Ozpin considers the age of the creatures and guesses that he and Salem are likely only a century or two older than them. However, that's because they've been both cursed with immortality by the Brother Gods so he doesn't know exactly how the monsters can live that long.

Cinder narrows her eyes, watching the two creatures with interest. At this point, it's obvious that this universe's version of Jaune Arc is even more useless than her own universe's version so she lacks the interest to pay him any more attention than it's needed. _"Now then, show me your power you monsters."_

Mercury whistles in awe. "Poor Arc. He doesn't stand a chance" he chuckled, feeling a lack of pity for the older man.

 **"Come on, Galand. Our goal is to conquer Remnant. Remember?" asked Melascula, having no patience for Galand's obnoxious behaviour.**

 **After chugging down another barrel, Galand pours a bottle of ale into a empty mug and offers it to his fellow Demon who reluctantly takes it. "Oh, don't be such a stiff in the mud."**

 **It didn't take long for Melascula to start chugging bottles of alcohol alongside Galand. Both are now adorning blushes across their cheeks, showing that they're a little bit more tipsy than they should be.**

 **"Yummy! Who knew booze would come so far in three thousand years time?" she said, sighing in satisfaction after swinging down a mug of ale. "I think I like this one the best" she moaned, using her Darkness to pick up a green bottle of ale.**

 **Being the excellent barkeeper that he is, Jaune decides to offer some info on the bottle of alcohol. "That's Vacuo ale. It's known to be a bit sweeter than the others. It's quite popular among the ladies of this land."**

 **Melascula moves so she's floating right in front of Jaune. "My, my, you sure know your booze."**

 **"I do own a tavern. It comes with the territory" stated Jaune.**

Many brows rise as they watch Jaune interact with the two powerful creatures.

"Kid's braver than he looks" said Qrow, thanking his unlucky stars that he doesn't have those two as his drinking partners. Not even he with his years of experience can drink an entire barrel of beer in seconds. That'd take him almost a full minute!

"Kid? He looks older than you, Qrow" said Ironwood, turning the face the drunkard. He'll never fully understand why Ozpin trusts so much to the drunk Huntsman.

Qrow waves the Atlesian General away. "Not in my universe he's not. I don't care if we get to see him when he's a thousand, Arc will remain a brat in my books."

 **Melascula stares into Jaune's eyes for a moment before thrusting her fist into the air. "You pass! When we wipe out the rest of humanity, I'm going to spare you."**

 **"Why than-" Jaune blinks when her words finally register with his brain. "WHA!? Wipe out humanity?!"**

 **"Soon, Remnant and all the humans who live here will be conquered by the Demon race" explained Galand, nursing another barrel of alcohol onto his lap while sitting on top of Jaune's bar.**

 **"D-Demon race? You mean the ones that were sealed away three thousand years ago?" Jaune asked with his voice shaking in fear.**

 **"And you are looking at two of the Demon race's elite force. The Ten Commandments." That would've sound intimidating if not for Galand's funny expression and blushing red cheeks.**

 _ **"Ten Commandments? I'm certain I've heard Ms. Goodwitch mention them before."**_

"Demons? Human extermination? That sounds like bad business to me" stated Roman, shaking his head. How can he make money off of poor saps when everyone is dead?

 _"I wouldn't put it past Adam to agree with them"_ thought Blake, knowing that her former boyfriend would love nothing more than to kill every last human on Remnant, for the honour of Faunus equality. However, she doubts that the Demons wouldn't stop at humanity and will likely kill every other race on the planet, Faunus included.

"The more time I spend watching these universes, the less I can understand our very own reality" sighed Glynda, suddenly feeling very tired. How can she not when she's watching a universe where there are powerful Demons who possess such tremendous power? She doubts that even Ozpin could stand a chance against the Demon who goes by the name, Galand.

"And to think, there's another eight of them" muttered Emerald, feeling a few of her muscles shake at the thought of facing such creatures.

 **That's when the two Demons starts demanding Jaune to hand over the Winter, Qrow and Summer who they know are hiding behind the door. "At any rate, after guzzling down all this booze, I'm in a very good mood" chuckled Galand as Jaune shakes in fear. The murderous intent that's coming off the two Demons is almost suffocating him!**

 **"So instead... it's Galand game time!"**

 **Jaune's fear takes a pause for a moment as he digests the Demon's words. "G-Game did you say?"**

 **"That's right" confirmed Galand, swinging his feet around so he's facing the little human while also sitting on the bar. "A very special one. If you win, I'll let you and the others back there off the hook."**

 **"Y-You will? R-Really?" asked Jaune, feeling a slimmer of hope warm his chest.**

 **Galand presses a thumb to his chest. "I'm Galand of Truth so a promise is a promise" he stated with evident pride.**

 **Jaune pushes up his glasses, feeling a lot more confident. "I-I'm hopeless when it comes to a fight, but I'm rather skilled in games you know. I'm quite good in card and dice."**

"I've got a feeling the Demon isn't talking about playing a simple board game" deadpanned Mercury. If these Demons are anything like the ones he sees in movies, they won't be playing fair.

 **"The rules are simple. It's a one-on-one fight to the death. After determining who goes first, we take turns delivering one strike a piece. Whoever dies first loses" explained Galand.**

 **"AAAAAHHHHHHH!"**

"Anyone wanna make bets on who's going to lose?" smirked Roman, taking off his hat and holding it out so he can take bets.

"I've got twenty lien on Galand winning" said Emerald, placing the required lien into Roman's hat. She knows a black horse when she sees one and that horse's name is Jaune Arc.

"I'll take some of that action" said Qrow, placing some of his own money in the hat.

"Qrow!" exclaimed Glynda in disgust over the man's actions.

"I place one hundred lien on the Demon."

"Weiss!"

"What? We all know the doofus won't stand two seconds against that Demon."

"It's still not right to bet against him!"

"I put fifty on Fearless Leader to win!" announced Nora, placing the right amount of lien into Torchwick's hat. Pyrrha pats her teammate's shoulder in appreciation, happy to see that there's someone who is actually loyal to her partner.

Roman shrugs his shoulders. "It's your money."

 **Galand leans his face closer to the human's. "It's your lucky day. I'll let you make the first move" said Galand, trying very little to hide his arrogance.**

 **"T-Thanks. B-By the way, what happens if I deny to play this?" asked Jaune, hoping to somehow get out of the game.**

 **"Then I'll kill you all immediately. Now then, are you going to play? Or die?"**

 **With sweat dripping off his face, tears flowing out of his eyes and shoulders shaking, Jaune reluctantly agrees to play, knowing that no matter which choice he makes, they're all going to die. He can at least try to fight for the others. "I-I'll play then."**

 **"Good for you!" cheered Galand while patting Jaune on the shoulder. "Just one thing. Once you've sworn to play this game, you're forbidden to back out or run away. Break that vow and you'll be turned to stone by the curse of the Commandment of Truth. Needless to say, the same applies to me as well."**

"Commandment of Truth? I'm guessing that curse has something to do with the Demon's title" mentioned Ironwood, rubbing his chin in thought.

"What a strange, but powerful ability" said Glynda, frowning at seeing her student be in such a difficult situation. While hopeless, she's proud to see him face the Demon head on and not give up like so many others would have.

"While strong, it has the disadvantage of working against Galand as well" said Ozpin, watching the screen very intently. While it appears to be a hopeless situation, Ozpin believes that something will happen between the Demon and Mr. Arc. Whatever it is, he doesn't know, but he intends to watch and find out.

 **"Galand... he's not listening" said the tipsy Melascula as she pours herself another drink.**

 **Galand looks to see that he accidentally threw the human through the stone bar, burying him in a small pile of rubble. "Huh? I thought I just tapped him lightly on the shoulder" said the perplexed Galand.**

 **With the human unconscious and their prey on the verge of death, the two Demons decide to continue drinking until the human wakes up so they can continue the game. After being sealed away for three thousand years, neither of the Commandments are in any rush to finish the game. After all, there is no human or faunus on the planet who can stop them and their pursuit of world domination.**

 **Hours pass by and eventually, the sun rises from the sky, bathing the sky with an orange glow.**

 **"He's not even close to waking up. Maybe you killed him?" slurred Melascula who's lying on top of a barrel while floating in the air. "Still, its gotten a bit hot out here, don't you think?"**

 **Galand ignores his fellow Demon, preferring to stare at the piece of decoration that is hanging on a shelf over the safe door. Said decoration is a giant longsword with a blue handle and a golden cross guard. "Hm~. What an enchanting, gorgeous-looking longsword you have here" said the Demon as he pulls the large sword off the shelf. The moment he pulls the blade off of the shelf, it falls to the floor and embeds itself into the floor. Galand tries to lift it up, but the weapon isn't moving an inch. "It's heavy!"**

"Isn't that Jaune's weapon?" asked Blake, recognizing the blade that her classmate uses. It really stands out among the weapons used by other students, due to the fact that it doesn't mecha shift.

"While it does look like Crocea Mors, this version looks to be nearly ten times bigger" answered Pyrrha, wondering why Jaune has his iconic weapon when it's obviously too big for him to use.

"I'm actually surprised the Demon can't lift it up. For someone who can cut apart a mountain, you'd think lifting up a sword would be childs play for him" said Raven, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. With his strength, the Demon shouldn't have any problems lifting up the large blade so why is he struggling? _"Is the blade really that heavy? If so, what kind of material was used to make it?"_

 **"Who the hell made this thing? The design of it is totally flawed. For a two-handed longsword, the hilt is way too short" exclaimed Galand, struggling to move the large and awkward weapon.**

 **"It's not flawed, it's a one-handed longsword."**

 **In a blur, the blade is taken out of Galand's hand. The two Demons look to see a muscular figure is familiar clothing, holding up the heavy weapon with only one hand. "Sacred Treasure Crocea Mors. Also known as the** _ **Yellow Death.**_ **A longsword blessed by the Fall Maiden, a mere Demon who rides around in the shadow of darkness isn't worthy of touching it." The man's clothing starts to rip apart as his muscles get larger and larger, revealing a large tattoo that's shaped as a lion on his back. "A shame. You two are as unlucky as you're foolish. Since you've come all the way to this remote tavern, only to forfeit your pathetic lives."**

All eyes in the audience widen as they watch the man get bigger and bigger in size, as well as holding up the weapon in which not even the Demon could hold up. They're mostly surprised because they recognize the man who's spouting out such arrogant words to the two powerful Demons.

"Is that...?"

"No way!"

"He's still growing!"

Ironwood pulls back the collar of his uniform, noting that the temperature of the room seems to have gotten higher. "Is it just me or has it gotten a bit hot in here?"

Usually, Qrow would've made a joke on Ironwood's choice of words, but he agrees with the Atlesian General's statement. The room is starting to feel hot all of a sudden.

Ozpin glances at everyone and notices how nobody seems to draw attention to the phrase, Fall Maiden. Nodding, he takes a sip from his coffee mug and continues to watch the next current events.

 _"Blessed by the Fall Maiden? I wonder if he's speaking about me or the previous holder"_ thought Cinder.

 **"Can you believe the mouth on this guy? What an arrogant man" laughed Melascula.**

 **"Are you really the same barkeep? You're acting completely different than you did before. Eh, you're not really human, are you?" asked Galand, remembering the human as a snivelling weakling. Now, he appears to be a lot stronger and definitely a lot more arrogant.**

 **"I am human. But, I'm also the one who stands at the pinnacle of all races." The human smiles as he leans Crocea Mors over his shoulder and points a finger into the air. "I'm one of the Seven Deadly Sins. The Sin of Pride. And my name... is Lion Sin Jaune Arc."**

"Jaune-Jaune is ripped!" exclaimed Nora in awe. She stares at Fearless Leader's massive biceps for a moment before agreeing to herself that she needs to increase her training regime if she wants to get giant muscles like those! _"I could break so many legs with those muscles!"_

"Vomit boy... has an eight pack" murmured Yang, drooling as she stares at the perfect image of a man. Having a thing for muscles, Yang almost orgasms at the sight of Jaune and his muscular glory. _"He makes bodybuilders look like trash in comparison"_ she thought, making sure to remember every curve and muscle on Jaune' s body for later _use._

Yang isn't the only one effected by Jaune's body, because every woman who has the slightest attraction to men are either blushing, drooling or picturing themselves with Jaune's body.

"Wow" muttered Blake in awe, wiping away the small tear of blood that's leaking out of her nose. She thought Sun's body was impressive, but it's nothing when in comparison with Jaune's. _"I know who I'll be thinking about when reading my books."_

"Yea... wow" replied Ruby, having almost lost every train of thought while staring at Jaune's glorious body. She has never been to care about boys, unlike Yang, but she can't help but picture herself stroking her fingers across Jaune's eight pack. _"I feel weird."_

Pyrrha seems to have gone into a comatose state, staring at the screen with wide eyes.

Cinder licks her lips as she scours Jaune's muscular body. _"Sin of Pride is right. He has a lot to be prideful about. I can feel his power, even from here."_

While Raven has more subtlety than the other females in the audience, she can't deny that she doesn't feel a heavy attraction to the powerful blonde. She has always found men with muscles attractive, which is how she got together with Tai in the first place. _"Incredible! I can sense his limitless power and it's almost drowning me"_ she thought, realizing that the crystal's power wasn't from the Demons, but actually the older Arc who is only now unleashing his strength.

"Can't help but feel a little bit inadequate, all of a sudden" deadpanned Qrow, looking over all the woman who are looking up at Jaune's body like it's prime meat. He'll agree that the kid's body is impressive as hell, but it's still insulting when it's captivating every woman in the room. Not even Glynda is immune to its effects.

 **"Another one of the Seven Deadly Sins, huh?" giggled Melascula. What are the odds that they'd find another one of these so-called** _ **Legendary Hunters of Remnant?**_

 **"Pretty bold of you to claim you stand at the pinnacle of all races. You are without a doubt, the cockiest human I've ever met!" claimed Galand, slouching to point at the human. The Demon reels his head back and starts laughing in amusement, although this is likely because of the heavy amount of alcohol he has consumed for the past few hours.**

 **Good-naturally, Jaune starts laughing along with the Demon.**

 **That's until he swings Crocea Mors and cuts the Demon in half. "And that is the Sin of Pride."**

"Go fearless leader! Break their legs!" cheered Nora, jumping out of her seat until Ren pulls her back.

"Incredible" muttered Glynda in awe. Somehow, her student's alternate self has grown in not only size, but power as well. Where the Demons appeared to be invincible a minute ago, Jaune manages to cut one of them down with ease. She couldn't even follow Jaune's swing when he cuts down Galand of Truth!

"That kind of power isn't human" stated Ironwood, watching as Jaune Arc defeats the Demon. While Huntsmen and Huntresses possess power that civilians might claim to be inhuman, Jaune Arc's power can be claimed as impossible for even Hunters.

 **Galand's upper body is thrown across the other side of the tavern, leaving his lower body to collapse in front of Jaune.**

 **Witnessing the human cut down her fellow Demon is enough to sober up Melascula who has dropped her barrel and is floating in the air. "One strike. That's all it took" whispered Melascula, watching the human, cautiously. "A human like this didn't exist three thousand years ago." While it seems that she's impressed with the human's accomplishment, she suddenly smirks. "Don't pat yourself on the back just yet. This game is far from over."**

 **True to her word, Darkness pours out of Galand's lower body and connects itself to his upper body before reattaching the two separated pieces back together. "You're strong, but it'll take a lot more than that to kill us" stated the recovered Commandment.**

 **Jaune appears to be undisturbed by the Demon's sudden recovery. "Of course, I'm aware of that. And I'm thankful, otherwise this wouldn't be as exciting for me."**

 **Melascula sighs in disappointment. "You make it sound like you intentionally held back. You really are arrogant. An idiotic human who doesn't know his place."**

 **Galand clenches his fists while preparing to unleash his powerful ability. "Let's assume for a moment that what you're saying is true. I'll still make you regret this. Not killing me with that first blow will be the last mistake you ever make." Everyone notices how the mountain is starting to shake, as well as the spike of power coming from Galand.**

 **"Y-You're using your magical power?"**

 **"You better step back, Melascula."**

 **Galand's chest piece starts to glow a bright red light before the light washes over his entire body. "Critical Over!"**

 **Jaune watches the sight in interest, wondering how strong the Demon will get when he finishes his transformation.**

"What's that idiot doing? He should attack before the Demon powers itself up" told Weiss, pushing herself up from her seat.

Ironwood folds his arms across his chest. "He can't. If you happen to recall, he agreed to play the Demon's game."

Ruby drops her fist on her open hand. "That's right! Because he attacked the Demon already, it's now Galand's turn to hit him."

"It's either he waits and take the blow, or attack and be turned to stone" said Qrow before glancing at the still standing Schnee. "So how about you stop picking on the kid for once and sit down and shut up.

While insulted over the drunkard's remarks, Weiss understands that she has rushed into insulting Arc and has only succeeded in embarrassing herself. With what little dignity she has left, she sits down and folds one leg over the other.

 **The power that's pouring out of Galand's body appears to be making his body vibrate in a rapid pace. Once the vibrating stops, Galand's body expands with small spikes poking out of all parts of his body. From the sight of him, it's obvious that he has grown even more intimidating and powerful than before. This is due to his special ability,** _ **Critical Over**_ **which increases Galand's strength to the limit.**

 **"Hahaha! Sorry barkeep, but I can't hold back!" laughed Galand as he grabs a hold of his staff. With both hands, he swings his weapon at Jaune with all of his strength, causing an explosive force to destroy the entire mountain, as well as cut apart two other mountains in the distance. With the mountain destroyed, Qrow grabs a hold of Winter's and Summer's unconscious bodies while trying to fight the powerful winds that are threatening to blow him away.**

 **When the dust clears, the two Demons expected to see a bisected, if not completely eradicated body of the arrogant human. They surely didn't expect to see the human still standing and especially not alive.**

 **Jaune sighs in disappointment when he sees that the Demon could only make a small scratch on his arm from his attack. "Seriously? That was the absolute best you could do?"**

 **Galand can only gape in horror at seeing how his most powerful blow did nothing but scratch the human.** _ **"Impossible! IMPOSSIBLE!"**_

 **"Galand! You need to withdraw!" told Melascula, realizing that who they're fighting against isn't just any normal human. In fact, she doubts he's actually a human in the first place.**

 **The Commandment of Truth pulls back his spear. "I can't! A promise is a promise!" He stabs his spear into the ground and points at Jaune. "Let's keep this up till the end!"**

 **Jaune shrugs his shoulders. "Fine then. It's my turn, right?"**

 **Galand's eyes widen when he senses the human's power rise even higher than before!**

 **Jaune raises Crocea Mors above his head and leaves it hanging right in front of the sun. Suddenly, the sun seems to expand in both size and power, drenching the area in an unbearable heat. As Jaune is about the land his next blow, Galand can only watch in terror as the human seems to rise above him as an unstoppable giant.**

 **"AAAAAAHHHHH!"**

 **Jaune blinks in surprise when he sees the Demon actually try to run away from him. Yet, he didn't make it far after the curse of the Commandment for Truth activated and turned Galand into stone. "What a pity. I was about to give him a glimpse of my most powerful self." He leans Crocea Mors on his shoulder and shakes his head in disappointment. "Apparently, even that ancient Demon couldn't help but be terrified of death. Though, I couldn't really blame the guy since he was up against me."**

Many in the audience thought they couldn't be in any greater awe than they already are, yet they still are.

Nora can only hum a tune as a disappointed Roman gives her the lien she won, seemingly unsurprised by Jaune's win.

Roman curses as he puts his hat back on his head. He won't deny that he has been hoping for the Demon to win the game, but damn, he'll admit that was entertaining to watch.

Neo's mouth is agape and being the good friend that he is, Roman pushes it back up, only to sigh when it falls back down.

Raven shivers in pleasure after witnessing the version of Jaune Arc absolutely destroy the powerful Demon in every shape and form. She finally understands why the crystal was emitting so much power. It's because it's trying to withhold the unbelievable power in Jaune Arc's body. She also loves the fact that he knows he's powerful and isn't afraid to show it off, probably being more prideful than even herself.

Still with a bit of pink dusting her cheeks, Pyrrha is happy to see that her partner defeated the Demon. Still, she is honestly impressed with his unparalleled strength, although he could try to be less arrogant. _"I guess he wouldn't be called the Sin of Pride if he wasn't arrogant"_ she thought with a sigh.

 **"Now then, as a special favour, I'm going to give you a choice. Escape or death. You should decide while I'm still feeling charitable" said Jaune, turning to face the remaining Commandment.**

 **Melascula turns away from Galand's petrified body and smiles. "I thank you... for getting rid of that loudmouth geezer, I owe you a debt of gratitude. To repay it..." Her smile widens. "... I'm going to kill you right now."**

 **Qrow tries to warn Jaune, but Melascula encases the both of them in an orb of Darkness. "Cacoon of Darkness!"**

 **"And I went out of my way to give you a chance escape" sighed Jaune. He turns to see that the Demon has vanished. Before he can search for her, his eyes widens and his cheeks bulge before he vomits out a blue orb.**

 **Behind Jaune is Melascula who has a hand on Jaune's large back. She smirks as she uses her power to expel the human's soul out of his body. "Everything you say is arrogant. Now, be silent forever."**

 **Floating up to the soul, she wraps her tongue around it before swallowing it, smirking once she ingests it. "Thank you for the meal."**

 **However, the Demon's victory is short lived when a burning pain makes itself known in her stomach. Wrapping her arms around her stomach, Melascula starts coughing as her stomach and mouth starts to burn up. "H-H-Hot!" All of a sudden, she ignites into flames as Jaune's soul shoots out of her mouth, piercing through her Cacoon of Darkness. "I-It's on a c-completely different level! H-How can he hold this much force? What is this power of yours!?" she cried out in indescribable pain.**

 **"It's Sunshine. My glorious magical power" declared Jaune in pride once his soul returns to his body, seemingly not bothered over losing his soul for a moment.**

 **Melascula screams of pain only worsen when she falls off the remains of the mountain and into the bottom of a ravine, silencing her.**

The screen fades away, leaving everyone in the audience either in a state of awe, disbelief or lust.

"That. Was. AWESOME!" yelled Ruby, throwing her arms into the air. She has never seen anything so cool in her entire life! Not even that R-Rated action movie her uncle let her watch could compare to how awesome her first friend was in that universe.

"Oum, I need a cold shower" sighed Yang, rubbing her face to cool down the heat on her cheeks. With all those muscles and power, she knows the first thing she'll be doing when she returns to her own universe is get Jaune into the gym. Her sole goal in life from now on is to make sure Jaune becomes as big as his alternate self.

"Agreed" muttered Blake, feeling as hot, if not more so than Yang. _"Curse my Faunus heritage!"_

Weiss clicks her tongue, ignoring the heat that washes over her face as she remembers Jaune's perfect body in all its shape and glory. She'll downright deny to everyone that he's attractive in any way.

Cinder has never cared for the likes of being in a relationship, but she can agree that the universe's version of Jaune Arc is someone she can imagine herself in bed with. Turns out her standards include being nigh indestructible and being as prideful has herself.

Spectre remains silent, waiting for the next person to choose a universe.

"My turn!" announced Yang, stepping towards the shelves on the right side of the room. Since no one has taken an orange crystal with red in the centre, she decides to do it herself. Grabbing one of them randomly, she offers the glowing crystal to Spectre who levitates it towards the screen.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"One way in, one way out. One thousand guards and one prisoner."**

 **"Yes, except that prisoner... is Jaune Arc."**


	6. I'm happy Ozpin sent you

**If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Kung Fu Panda.**

 **xXx**

"That universe is going to be hard to beat" said Yang, resting her head against her soft chair. She quite enjoyed seeing the shirtless Sin of Pride Jaune be a complete badass, although she doubts there's a shirt big enough to fit his rippling arms and chest. She wipes a bit of sweat from her forehead while hoping nobody sees her do so.

"I'm curious about why Jaune couldn't use his power when the Demons first showed up, though" said Ren, reminding everyone that Jaune didn't use his _Sunshine_ ability when the Demons first showed up. Wouldn't it have made more sense if he used it to beat them the moment they first threatened him?

Blake closes her eyes in thought before she opens them, coming up with a good enough theory on why Jaune did so. "From what I can tell, it might be because his powers relates to the sun in some way. If we can go by the name of his power and the fact that he only used it when the sun came up, it might be because he couldn't use his power in the middle of the night."

Pyrrha nods, having come up with the same theory as well. "I agree. Why would he not use his power when first facing the Demons? The only sane conclusion is that he couldn't."

"So at night, he becomes a weak whimpering mess and the day, he becomes an arrogant badass?" said Yang, rubbing her chin.

Before they can continue, the screen in front of them turns on, showing them another universe of Jaune Arc.

 **Thousands of miles away from any sign of civilisation, there's a prison in the rocky mountains of Atlas. Said prison is one of the biggest secrets in Atlas, since no one but a select few knows about the prison's existance, nor its exact location. Not even the guards protecting the prison know of its exact location, having been blindfolded when arriving, via Bullhead. While the prison's existance is a secret that's kept from the public, to those who know of its existance, it's the most secure facility in all of Remnant. It has to be when its sole purpose is to hold the most vile and powerful criminals in the planet.**

 **That prison's name is Black Gate Prison.**

Pyrrha sighs in disappointment, knowing that her hopes of Jaune not being a criminal in this universe is well and truly gone. _"Is Jaune destined to be a criminal?"_ After seeing so many universes of her partner as a criminal, she's starting to worry if her own version will become one as well. She has been hoping to see universes where Jaune is the knight in shining armour, saving the lives of innocents while fighting the evil of the world. So far, the closest versions of that has been Soldier 76 and Sin of Pride, although neither of them have been perfect either.

"Is there such a prison?" asked Qrow, turning to face Ironwood. If there's anyone in Atlas who knows big secrets like that, it would be the Atlesian General.

The Atlesian General shakes his head in denial. "If such a prison does exist, I haven't been informed of it."

 **Standing outside the locked doors of the prison are two professional Huntsmen, wearing the iconic white uniform of Atlesian guards. In each of their hands are their personal weapons, ready to use the moment they spot any sign of danger. Neither of the pair look bothered by the heavy snow and chilling cold of the usual Atlesian weather. Having spent their entire lives in Atlas, they have grown accustomed to the freezing weather.**

 **Both of them grab hold of their weapons when they see an incoming Bullhead in the distance. While they have been warned of its impending arrival already, they can't take the risk of letting their guard down. The last time someone let their guard down around the prisoner, they lost an arm and a leg.**

 **The Bullhead slows to a stop and lowers on a small space of rock in front of the prison. The cargo door opens, revealing the small form of a shivering Duck Faunus who has black feathers covering most of his body. Both guards recognize the Faunus as a messenger from the Beacon Academy's Headmaster, Ozpin.**

 **The guards look at one another and nod before they turn around to open the large and heavy doors to the prison. After a series of opening heavy locks, the doors eventually open, revealing even more Hunters who are acting as guards for the prison.**

Ozpin raises a brow. "For being a prison, they are using an awful amount of Hunters to guard it."

"It's a waste of resources" scowled Glynda, hating to see so many Hunters wasted in acting as simple guards for a single prison. Ordinary soldiers can easily take the role of guards in the prison. The Hunters should be out in Remnant, exterminating Grimm and protecting frontier towns.

Raven slightly pushes herself on the edge of her seat, watching the screen with great intent. After the last universe, she has learned to not underestimate Jaune Arc from now on. "Perhaps the prisoners are too much for ordinary guards to handle?" If so, she's already liking where this universe is going.

"I'd say I'm in that prison, but who would I be fooling?" said Roman before laughing alongside Neo who silently laughs with him. With the incompetent VPD and Hunters-in-training, it actually took him to surrendering on his own to get caught. All part of the fire bitch's foolproof plan.

Blake glares at the pair of criminals and would have moved forward, if not for Yang holding her back.

 **Standing right across from the open doorway is the Warden himself, a tall and muscular Rhino Faunus who looks to be already in a bad mood. The Warden doesn't seem to be afraid of showing off his luxury, because the horn that is where his nose should be is covered in solid gold.**

 **Upon handing his message from Ozpin to the Black Gate's Warden, the Duck Faunus awaits for his response while nervously looking around the large and intimidating prison.**

 **"WHAT!? Double the guards!? Extra precautions?!" The angry Warden crumples the written letter in his hand while glaring down at the Duck Faunus. "Your prison might not be adequate?" he said, repeating the words from the letter to the nervous Duck Faunus.**

 **The Faunus takes a step back, only to jump when he feels his back touch the chest of one of the many angry Hunters surrounding him, each holding their weapons in their hands. If their goal is to intimidate him, they're doing a very good job at it.**

 **"You doubt my prison's security?" asked the Warden, poking a large finger into the Messenger's chest.**

 **The Duck Faunus gulps, feeling his legs shake under him. "Absolutely not... Ozpin does. I'm only the messenger."**

 **"I'll give you a message for your precious Ozpin" stated the Warden before bringing the messenger on a tour through the prison.**

 **Reluctantly, the Messenger follows after the Warden, knowing that he has no choice on the matter.**

 **"Escape from Black Gate Prison is impossible!" stated the Warden as he and the Messenger walk across the bridge that leads towards the lower levels. The Messenger decides to take a risk and peek off the side of the bridge and almost feels sick when he sees that the prison goes on for miles underground with each level being nothing but a lone bridge. It's so far down that he literally can't see the bottom.**

 **The Messenger jumps in surprise when the Warden slaps him on the back, making him lose one of his feathers. "Haha. Impressive, isn't it?" laughed the Warden, smiling in amusement.**

 **"I-It's impressive... v-very i-impressive" answered the Messenger, stuttering because of his shaking fear. He follows after the Warden when he sees him walk further across the bridge, uncaring to the lone feather that falls off the bridge and slowly glide down into the shadows of the prison's lower levels.**

 **The pair walk further down the prison. "One way in, one way out. One thousand guards and one prisoner" stated the Warden.**

 **Most would feel that having a prison with only one prisoner that's guarded by one thousand professional Hunters is a bit of an overkill. It's only when they realize who that one prisoner is do they understand why the security is so tight.**

 **"Yes, but that prisoner... is Jaune Arc" whispered the Messenger, looking around the prison as if Jaune Arc will pop out of the shadows any second. Knowing that he's in the exact same building as the infamous Jaune Arc is enough to stifle his feathers.**

Mercury whistles, feeling impressed that one man requires such tight security. "I gotta wonder what he did to end up in there."

"I don't really want to know" muttered Pyrrha, closing her eyes and dropping her head so she's facing her folded hands on her lap. Beside her, Nora offers the champion a pat on the back, hoping to ease her teammate's worries. It isn't like she doesn't understand Pyrrha's heartache. Seeing her partner and love interest end up as a criminal in so many universes is likely breaking her heart. She couldn't imagine how she'd react if she sees Ren turn up as a villain in one of the universes and what scares the bubbly girl the most is that she knows it's entirely possible.

Ironwood stiffens when he hears how much security has been placed into the prison. _"Such security must cost millions of lien to keep in operation. What did Jaune Arc do to earn such tight security around him?"_

Cinder watches in interest, wanting to know the crimes Jaune Arc did to earn himself such a gracious spot in Black Gate Prison.

 **After walking to the last remaining bridge, the Messenger realizes that they are still nowhere near the end of tour. Turns out that in order to reach the bottom floor from the last remaining bridge, they need to take a manually-operated lift on a platform to the bottom floor, where there is still over three miles worth of distance. Even after theyes reach the bottom floor, they have to get through a series of locked gates and doors to finally make it to the prisoner's cell.**

 **The Messenger takes a big gulp of saliva as he watches the last remaining wall that's separating him from the prisoner collapse into a makeshift bridge, leading them to a circular platform with one occupant. "Oh my..."**

 **The Warden nods. "Behold... Jaune Arc."**

 **The Messenger gulps once again and takes a step back. "I'll... um... wait right here."**

 **The Rhino Faunus chuckles. "There's nothing to be worried about. It's perfectly safe." He proves it by pushing the Messenger across the bridge before following suit. "Crossbows, at the ready!" he ordered.**

 **"C-Crossbows?!" stuttered the Messenger who looks around to see that there are around a dozen giant crossbows on top of the surrounding wall with Hunters operating them.**

 **As they step onto the circular platform, the Messenger realizes that there's a gap surrounding the platform, separating the platform from the high walls and crossbows. He guess it's so the prisoner can't get off the platform if he escapes his restraints.**

 **Speaking about his restraints, the Messenger notices that Jaune Arc appears to be wearing a shell-like restraint that covers his entire torso. While it's unimpressive to look at, the Messenger knows that the shell is actually one of the hardest restraints to get out of. This is because of the needles on the back of the shell which stabs into the victim's body at certain points, causing paralysis. It also has the canny effect to tighten around the wearer if they struggle to get out of it, making the experience even more uncomfortable.**

 **Apparently, that's not even enough to placate the Warden, because Jaune is also restrained through shackles that are connected to a chain that leads towards the gap surrounding the platform. If one is to follow the chains, they would notice that they are each connected to a large boulder.**

 **And to think, he has been in the exact same position for the past twenty years.**

Many in the audience, even the criminals watch the screen in shock, surprise and horror. None of them expected to see Jaune be placed under such inhumane restraints while in the prison. Through full body paralysis and boulders connected to his arms, many are wondering how such a person could handle that amount of strain.

"How on Remnant isn't his arms dislocated yet?" asked Emerald, in disbelief. Even if he does have Aura, those boulders should have ripped his arms out of their sockets, if not off his body altogether. And he has been doing this for twenty years!

"I'm not sure if that's badass or just plain cruel" said Mercury who is actually showing a bit of pity towards this universe's version of Jaune.

Ozpin turns to face Ironwood with a stern expression on his face. "James..."

"I know what you're thinking and no, Atlas doesn't treat any of their prisoners like this. I swear" replied Ironwood, knowing what Ozpin is thinking.

"What of their Faunus prisoners?" asked Blake, refusing to take her eyes off of the screen. The reason for this is because she can't take her eyes off of Jaune's extra animal appendages, being his pair of snow white ears and tail. She has seen many Faunus in her life, but she has never seen any with more than one animal feature before.

In front of everyone's eyes, they are looking at a version of Jaune Arc who is a Faunus. A Snow Leopard Faunus to be exact.

James can't hide his flinch when he hears Ozpin's student ask him that question. He understands that Atlas tends to have infamous reputation with how they treat Faunus. It's because of that reason why Atlas is known to have the least amount of Faunus than any Kingdom. The treatment of Faunus employees in the SDC doesn't exactly help to improve the Kingdom's image towards Faunus. "Especially not our Faunus prisoners."

The fact Blake doesn't address or answer him in anyway only further adds to the distrust that Faunus have to Atlas.

 **"Hey, tough guy, did you hear? Ozpin is giving away the position of Beacon's Headmaster and it's NOT going to be you" chuckled the Rhino Faunus as he walks around the immobilized prisoner. If Jaune can hear him, he doesn't show it as he remains still with his eyes closed. It doesn't matter to the Warden because he knows the prisoner can hear him.**

 **The Messenger gasps in horror. "What are you doing!? Do you want to make him mad?!" exclaimed the Duck Faunus, knowing everything about Jaune Arc's past. When someone single-handedly manages to destroy half of Vale and nearly destroy Beacon Academy, everyone tends to get very interested on that certain person's history.**

 **Everyone knows all about Jaune Arc and how he was found on Beacon's doorstep when he was just a baby. Ozpin found the abandoned child and ever since then, he took care of the Snow Leopard Faunus as if he's his own child.**

 **Seeing as he's the Headmaster of Beacon Academy, it wasn't any surprise that Ozpin started Jaune's training at a young age. In time, Ozpin's training showed as Jaune became one of the most skilled Hunters in Remnant. At the time, Jaune's goal was to someday take over the role as Headmaster of Beacon Academy, in respect to his adoptive father.**

 **Seen as a prodigy in the eyes of the people, he was constantly praised, especially by the Faunus, as the next coming of Ozpin. All the constant praises of his accomplishments only added fuel to the fire that is Jaune's praise.**

 **At the age of twenty, Ozpin decided to give the mantle of Headmaster to his adopted son, feeling nothing but pride for the boy he has raised on his own. It was a joyous day for all, especially the Faunus who saw Jaune as a representation to what Faunus can achieve in a world full of hate and racism.**

 **Unfortunately, Jaune's rise to Headmaster didn't sit well for everyone. While Ozpin has the power to give his position to whoever he believes to be qualified, there's a certain group of people who hold power above even him.**

 **Those people are the Council of Vale.**

Ozpin closes his eyes, knowing where the story is heading. He has spent enough time arguing with the Council to know all about their habits, likes and dislikes. If this universe's version of the Council are anything like his own, he can guess why everything went wrong.

 **Apparently, the Council of Vale didn't like the idea of a** _ **Faunus**_ **rising into such a prestigious and powerful position like Beacon's Headmaster. So, they used their power to undermine Ozpin's decision and cancel Jaune's promotion to Headmaster.**

 **Jaune... didn't like that decision.**

 **In his rage, Jaune Arc killed the Council members and anyone who tried to get in his way. Afterwards, he went to Beacon Academy to** _ **forcefully**_ **take the Headmaster position. Only after an intense battle between father and son did Jaune Arc finally end up defeated and sentenced to Black Gate Prison for life.**

"That's... sad" admitted Blake who's ears fall flat on her head. "He was raised to take over Professor Ozpin's position so I can kinda understand why he was so angry."

Weiss shakes her head, trying to cut off any sense of pity she feels for Jaune. "While it is sad, it doesn't excuse him for murder."

"Can't blame him, though" said Roman with a shrug of his shoulder, uncaring about the kid's sad life. However, he can understand why the kid killed off the Council Members. If someone stopped him from getting that much power, he'd probably kill them as well.

"Sir... are you alright?" asked Glynda, noticing Ozpin's strained face.

Ozpin shakes his head. "It's nothing, Glynda. Just... thinking" he answered, remembering of times that have long since pass. Times when he had children of his own. No matter how many years pass by, he'll forever remember their names and faces. Even... the four little girls he had with Salem.

 **The Warden smirks, clearly not scared by Jaune. "What's he going to do about it! I've got him completely immobilized." To prove his point, the Warden steps on Jaune's white and black tail, much to the horror of the Messenger. Yet, Jaune doesn't even flinch over having his tail being stepped on by a heavy Rhino Faunus. "Aw~, did I step on the witty kitty's tail" he mocked, pressing his face beside Jaune's own.**

 **"I'm good! I've seen enough! I'll tell Ozpin he has nothing to worry about" told the Messenger, stepping away from the prisoner and back towards the exit.**

 **As the Warden leaves with the Messenger, neither notice the lone feather from before fall right in front of Jaune. The moment the feather touches the floor, Jaune's cold-blooded eyes open before he looks down at the feather. Smirking, he uses his tail to grab the feather.**

Blake's eyes widen in horror when she sees those bloodthirsty eyes of Jaune's. _"His eyes... they're just like Adam's."_

Nora jumps out of her seat after Jaune's eyes suddenly open, surprising her from the suddenness. "Scary!~" Ren merely sighs, ignoring how Nora is clinging onto his head.

Roman watches as Neo makes several hand signs for him. "Yes Neo, I do believe they're screwed" he answered, nodding his head.

 **Using his tail, Jaune inserts the feather into the lock of his restraints while using his enhanced hearing to help him search for the unlocking mechanism. After hitting the feather a few times with his tail, Jaune's ears flicker when he hears the lock move for a moment. With a quick jab of the feather into the lock, the restraints unlock themselves, pulling the needles out of Jaune's body and allowing him free movement after twenty years of being paralyzed.**

"As much as I hate to say it, that's pretty clever" said Qrow, actually impressed with how the kid manages to escape his restraints by using his tail and a feather to undue the lock.

"To think, all it took was a single feather" sighed Ozpin. "If the Messenger didn't come to the prison at all, this would never have happened."

"Just hold on a moment. He still has to escape the prison" told Glynda, wondering why everyone seems to accept that Jaune Arc has escaped already.

 **With his body cured of paralysis, Jaune rolls his neck and wrists, hearing his bones crack after a lack of use for nearly two decades. Afterwards, he tenses up and after a small bit of struggle, he shatters the turtle shell that has been his container for years, revealing that he's only wearing a pair of baggy purple pants, showcasing his bare, toned chest. However, the weight of the two boulders that are attached to his arms still brings him down onto his knees.**

 **Since there's only one prisoner in the entire prison, it doesn't take long for everyone to figure out what's happening.**

 **From the very top of the prison, the Warden looks down from the bridge and much to his horror, he sees that the prisoner has gotten out of his containment. "Oh no!"**

 **"What's happening?" asked the Messenger, looking down from the bridge. His eyes widen when he sees the hundreds of guards get into their positions as Jaune Arc struggles to get out of his chains. The Messenger gulps when he makes eye contact with the infamous Faunus who roars up at himself, making his knees shake in uncontrollable fear.**

 **Gaining his wits together, the Warden raises a fist to signal his men who are running the large crossbows. "Fire crossbows!"**

 **From the high wall surrounding Jaune, all the large crossbows quickly take aim on him and one after another, they fire a large bolt at him. Anyone else would find themselves screwed in such a situation, but not Jaune.**

 **For the first three bolts that fire at him, Jaune moves his torso slightly away so he doesn't get torn through, leaving the three giant bolts sticking into the floor around him. Realizing that he will be in trouble if he doesn't get out of his chains, the Snow Leopard Faunus narrows his eyes at the crossbow in front of him. Once it fires, he moves his body to the left while sticking his right arm out towards the trajectory of the bolt. He not only avoids a swift death, but also manages to use the bolt to destroy the restraints on his right arm. With one arm free, it's child's play for the Faunus to rip off the remaining restraint on his other hand.**

 **Now free, Jaune looks up at the wall and smirks.**

 **"Jaune Arc is free!" cried the Messenger. "I must tell Ozpin!"**

 **Before the Messenger can run off, the Warden grabs the back of his shirt and pulls him back. "You're going nowhere and neither is he!" he declared before ordering his guards to bring up the lift which is the only way to get up from the bottom floor.**

"But what about the guards that are still operating the crossbows?" asked Ren, realizing that if they bring up the lift, that'll leave the guards on the bottom floor alone with Jaune.

Ozpin closes his eyes and sighs. "It's a sacrifice that the Warden is willing to make. While it may cost the lives of a few guards, he'll be saving the majority of them. While tragic, it was the right decision to make."

Weiss frowns in distaste. "But that isn't right."

"Welcome to the real world" remarked Qrow, peeking through the hole of his flask, acting as if he'll somehow find out the reason why he isn't feeling a buzz yet.

 **Jaune steps forward when he sees that the only way out of the prison is being lifted away from him, but his Faunus ears perk up when he hears the sound of another crossbow being cocked. He turns around in time to watch as the guards fire another bolt at him. However, unlike last time, he isn't chained down by boulders.**

 **Jaune takes a fighting stance and once the bolt is close enough, he hits it at the bottom of its tip, making it flip over head and point at the direction it just came from. Once it slowly falls to his level, Jaune kicks it at the crossbow, cutting through it with ease and stabbing itself into the wall behind it.**

 **Getting an idea, Jaune looks over the five bolts that are sticking into the floor around him and within a second, he throws four of the five bolts into the air. Once each one falls back down to him one by one, he kicks them high into the air where they stick themselves into the wall, each one higher than the last. Cracking his neck, Jaune backflips onto the remaining bolt and uses it as a trampoline to vault over the crossbows and towards the bolts he has stuck on the wall. Using his claws to help him climb, he swings and jumps off each bolt which leads him closer and closer to the lift that's slowly getting away.**

 **The Warden doesn't miss this. "Snipers!" he ordered as the hundred guards with snipers in their hands line up across the top bridge and open fire on the prisoner.**

 **Stopping onto the second last bolt, Jaune uses his sharp eyesight to see the hundred or so snipers on the top of the prison. Growling, he jumps towards the last remaining bolt and swings off it towards the lift. Luckily, he manages to grab onto the bottom of the metallic lift before the snipers open fire, shooting hundreds of bullets at him, but each missing since he's taking cover underneath the metallic lift which is plenty strong enough to tank the gunfire.**

 **One guard on a higher platform smirks and swings his axe at the chain that's lifting up the lift. His weapon cleaves through the chain as if it's made of butter and he watches as the lift falls back down to the bottom floor and shatter upon impact. Feeling smug about taking out the infamous Faunus, he claps hands with his fellow guard who standing at the other side of the hole where the lift usually comes up.**

 **So caught up in their celebration, neither realize they're dead until Jaune jumps up from the hole while performing an upside down splits kick, hitting both Hunters across the jaw and knocking them off the platform.**

Blake watches in awe as her fellow Faunus quickly makes his way higher and higher up the prison. _"With his skill, I highly doubt that the Warden can keep him down for long."_

Mercury winces when he sees Jaune perform the split kick. As someone who specializes is kicks, he understands the necessity for being flexible, but seeing the Faunus version of Jaune perform the move with ease makes him remember the times his _father_ made him stretch to become flexible, causing him to wince as phantom pains slowly appear across his thighs. _"Not fun."_

Yang whistles as she watches Jaune perform some pretty amazing moves. She's especially impressed with how he's doing it all with his bare hands. _"I don't think I could do all that, even with my weapons on me."_

Glynda watches the screen in appreciation, recognizing that Jaune Arc must have spilt a lot of blood, sweat and tears to gain such skill and strength.

Ruby and Nora have stars in their eyes as Jaune performs physical feats many Hunters can only dream of.

 **Landing on his feet, Jaune grabs the chain that used to hold up the lift and jumps back off the platform. This is so he can use the swing across the other side of the platform with the chain and once high enough, he jumps off and grabs onto the edge of the lowest bridge.**

 **That's when the carnage occurs.**

 **The dozens of Hunters on the bridge immediately attack the Faunus, hoping to catch him off guard. Sadly for them, Jaune is prepared for them. Within seconds, Jaune is taking out professional Hunters left, right and centre while more and more charge at him from across the bridge.**

 **As a large burly Huntsman drops his battle axe down on Jaune, the Faunus steps to the side and punches him across the jaw before grabbing the sides of his face and kicking him off the bridge. A second later, another Huntsman swings his swords, but Jaune drops low to the ground and attacks by elbowing the Huntsman across the jaw, stunning him for the moment. A Huntress with a large war hammer attacks him from behind, but Jaune catches the hilt of the weapon with one hand while holding the stunned Huntsman by the throat with the other. Kicking the Huntress into a group of incoming Hunters, Jaune swings the stunned Huntsman over his shoulder and knocks out another trio of Hunters with kicks.**

 **Another Huntsman swings his battle axe at Jaune, but the Faunus performs a palm thrust at the same time. Even with Aura, the Hunter's battle axe should have at least pushed Jaune's hand back. Instead, Jaune's palm shatters the weapon with ease and as the remnants of the weapon flies past Jaune's face, he slams his palm across the chest of the Huntsman, throwing him backwards. This works well for Jaune because the flying Huntsman manages to knock down the two dozen Hunters who are storming out of the other side of the bridge.**

 **Running past them and climbing up the stairs to the bridge in the next level, he sees that two muscular Huntsmen are trying to use their strength to keep the caged door closed on him. Their efforts prove fruitless as Jaune smashes the door off its hinges which lands on top of the two Huntsmen while Jaune lands on top of the door. Two Huntresses attack, but Jaune jumps at them and after grabbing the head of one with his hands and the other with his feet, the Faunus spins in the air with the Huntresses spinning along with him. With an extra strong spin at the end, Jaune lands on his feet as the Huntresses collapse to the floor with their necks snapped.**

Cinder watches the screen with her eyes wide open and if anyone has been paying her any attention, they'd know that she hasn't blinked for the past five minutes. How can she not be in awe of the Faunus's after he takes down Hunter after Hunter with his bare hands? _"It doesn't matter how many Hunters there have in the prison. To him, they're all his prey"_ she thought as a slow, but sinister smirk stretches across her lips. While the previous version of Jaune Arc has been unbelievably powerful, this universe's version has a personality that's quite similar to her own.

Emerald gulps as she watches the Faunus take apart professional Hunters with such ease that it's scary. _"I don't understand! Is every version of Jaune Arc an overpowered badass, except for my own?"_ After managing to sneak into Beacon as students from Haven Academy, Cinder gave her the job to watch and study Pyrrha Nikos and her team. This includes their team leader, Jaune Arc. After watching the leader for most of a day, she concluded that he's nothing but a bumbling buffoon who's very likely to run himself through with his own sword.

 _"He's the weakest in the entire academy! So why is there so many versions of him who are so powerful and intimidating?"_ Her eyes widen as she comes up with a sudden revelation. _"Maybe he isn't weak at all! Maybe he's hiding his skill all along. Why else would Ozpin make him the team leader when they have Pyrrha Nikos?"_

Ren makes sure to take notes of Jaune's fighting style, since he likes to incorporate a mixture of Aura control and martial arts while he his fighting. While he hates to see his team leader kill so easily, Ren won't deny that he has some impressive moves on him.

 **A muscular Huntsman brings down his spiked club, but Jaune avoids the deadly weapon and elbows him across the side of his face. Before the Huntsman falls off the bridge, Jaune grabs his weapon and starts using it to take out three more Hunters. One fool has the audacity to cry out while charging at the prisoner. Deciding to teach the man a lesson, Jaune shoves the spiked mace into the shouting Huntsman's mouth and kicks him into the air. As the Huntsman flies across the air with a mace in his mouth, Jaune takes out another ten Hunters within seconds and grabs the falling Huntsman before throwing him into the staircase before climbing up the wall and landing on the top bridge.**

 **Pushing himself off his hands and knees, Jaune stares across the bridge to see what's left of the guards, including the annoying Warden. He counts around a hundred Hunters remaining, although he doesn't know why any of them aren't on the bridge.**

 **It doesn't matter to him anyway. They'll be all dead when he's finished with them, especially the Warden.**

 **Snarling, Jaune gets ready to run and finish off the rest of the fools who think they can stop him from escaping.**

 **"We're dead. So very, very dead" stated the Messenger, accepting his fate. The exit may be directly behind him, but he knows that he'll be dead long before he gets halfway towards it.**

 **The Messenger gasps for breath when the Warden suddenly pulls hard against his neck. "Haha! Not yet, we're not. NOW!"**

 **Jaune notices one of the guards turn their sword into a rifle, but instead of aiming at him, the Hunter shoots a bullet of Fire Dust over his head. Following the bullet's trajectory, his eyes widen in surprise when he sees that the bullet hits explosives that are tied around the large stalactites that are just over his head.**

"Their last effort" stated Ozpin.

"If this plan somehow fails, they've got nothing else left to stop him" said Glynda. If the plan fails to destroy the bridge on time, all that will be left is the hundred or so guards and she doubts they will stop him for even a moment. After watching her student's alternate self defeat and kill most of the thousand guards in the prison, she knows that another hundred won't last very long against him.

 **Once the explosions go off, the stalactites begin to fall on top of the bridge and destroy it. Realizing that he's on a time limit, Jaune makes a run towards the other side of the bridge while avoiding the falling stalactites. Unfortunately, the rest of the bridge collapses when Jaune's only halfway across so in a last distch effort, he jumps for the other side. While it appears that he might make it, he doesn't as his claws manage to scrape across the other side before losing their grip.**

 **Jaune lands on top of a falling stalactite and even now, he can hear the Warden's arrogant laughter.**

"What's he gonna do now?" asked Ruby. While Jaune is the villain in this universe, she can't help but root for him at this stage. Having watched so many universes, she has grown use to seeing people die and doesn't react as badly as she use to at the beginning.

"There's literally nothing he can do at this point, other than fall back to the bottom floor" stated Blake, trying her best to not sound so relieved. _"The world is bad enough with one Adam. There doesn't need to be another one."_

"I wouldn't count him out yet. Look" said Weiss, noticing that something is about to happen on the screen.

 **As he's falling, Jaune notices that some of the explosives that are tied around the stalactites on the ceiling have yet to go off. Having a plan on mind, the martial artist jumps off the falling stalactite and onto a higher piece of falling debris. Moving faster than the debris can fall, Jaune jumps higher and higher among the falling debris before he starts climbing onto the side of a long stalactite before jumping off and latching himself onto a stalactite on the ceiling.**

 **Quickly climbing up, Jaune grabs hold of the robe that has an explosive attached to it and jumps off the stalactite towards the Warden and his guards.**

 **"Can we run now?" asked the Messenger, watching as his life flashes before his eyes.**

 **"Y-Yes" muttered the Warden, having lost all confidence and hope.**

 **Neither move as Jaune throws the explosive at them. The force of the explosion is so powerful that it not only takes out all the guards, but also destroy the door behind them.**

 **Somehow, the Messenger lands onto the snowy floor outside the prison, having mostly survived the explosion, although a few of his feathers are singed. Pushing himself up, he coughs out a small puff of smoke that managed to creep into his lungs upon the explosion.**

 **Looking around the destruction, the Messenger can see that some of guards have somehow survived like him, although some look to be suffering from painful burns and broken bones. They're still in much better condition than most of the other guards who don't look to be breathing while lying in the cold snow.**

 **The Messenger nearly jumps when he hears the sound of metal hitting the floor beside him. Looking to his right, his eyes widen when he sees the bloody golden hold that use to belong to the Warden. Realizing that the person who took** _ **care**_ **of the Warden is right behind him, the Messenger gulps just before a strong hand grabs him by the back of the neck. The owner of the strong hand lifts him up like as if he doesn't weigh anything and the Messenger shakes in fear when he's forced to turn around to look into the bloodthirsty eyes of Jaune Arc.**

 **From the facial expression of Jaune's face, it looks like he's about to kill the Messenger as well. Instead, his face softens as he releases a breath, relishing in the comfort of the cold snow. "I'm so happy Ozpin sent you" said Jaune, stroking the side of the shaking Messenger. "I was beginning to think I was forgotten. Fly back to Beacon and tell Ozpin, I'm coming back for MY position."**

 **Afraid for his life, the Messenger attempts an awkward smile and nods before Jaune throws him towards the only Bullhead.**

 **As Jaune watches the Messenger fly into the sky to tell Ozpin about his escape, the flames from the prison behind him suddenly lighten up even more, showing Jaune's large and intimidating shadow.**

The screen fades away with the last imagery being Jaune's large intimidating shadow as he stands around the broken or dead guards.

"I'll never understand how Vomit Boy of all people can be so scary" said Yang, remembering that Jaune has been scary in the first universe as well. She likes a bad boy. Just not one who can kill a thousand professional Hunters with ease and not care about it.

Blake's clenches her fist, hating how someone as strong as that can be so full of hate. _"If Humans and Faunus can coexist with one another, these type of people wouldn't be made"_ she thought, knowing that it's because of Human bigotry against Faunus that made Adam the hateful man he is now. It's also how this universe's of Jaune became to be, although it's much worse because he's so much more powerful than Adam.

"I know Jaune is the bad guy here, but you've got to admit, he's pretty cool" said Ruby, feeling nothing but awe and amazement over how Jaune defeated so many professional Hunters with his own hands. _"I hope I get as strong as that one day."_

Spectre turns back towards the audience, but stares intently at Pyrrha who almost jumps out from her seat when she notices the Spectre's gaze on her. "Y-Yes?"

"You aren't pleased, are you?" asked Spectre, knowing her answer before she can think if it.

Pyrrha looks down at her lap and slowly nods. "It's just... I don't like seeing my partner like this. He's always so kind to others that it breaks my heart to see him turn out like this."

Nora gently pats Pyrrha on her back to ease her tension while Ren offers her a small smile to show her that she isn't the only one hurting.

"I see. Would it please you if I showed you his future?"

Everyone's eyes widen, as well as quite a few quickening of heartbeats.

"Y-You can show us our future?" asked Weiss in shock.

"A future" stated Spectre. "As there are so many universes in the Multiverse, there are also as many futures in a single universe. If certain decisions are made, this can be the upcoming future of your universe." Spectre raises his sleeve-covered hand and a golden glow envelops over his hidden palm. Once the glow subsides, a golden crystal can be found hovering over Spectre's hand. "Would you like to see a possible future, Pyrrha Nikos?"

"Yes!" The Invincible Girl blushes in embarrassment after suddenly shouting at the Spectre. "I-If you could."

Spectre nods. "Very well." Without moving his palm, the golden crystal floats towards the screen.

The moment the crystal enters, the screen glows a bright light, forcing everyone to block their eyes.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"This party's getting crazy!"**

 **"Let's rock!"**


	7. Let's rock!

**If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening**

 **xXx**

When the bright light fades away, everyone looks up at the screen with bated breath. The reason for this is because everyone knows that what they're going to be watching next isn't just going to be another version of Jaune Arc in a different universe.

This time, they are going to be viewing the possible future for their _own_ Jaune Arc.

Some like Glynda and James wait to see if Jaune becomes a benefit for their cause to fight Salem and her followers.

Some like Team RWBY and NPR wait to see if Jaune succeeds in his dream to becoming the hero like he has always wanted to be.

Some like Raven and Cinder wait to see if their version of Jaune becomes as powerful as his other versions.

But only Ozpin waits to see if Jaune manages to unlock his full potential in the future.

 **The light fades to show a large room with loads of open space. On one side of the room is a pool table, two red couches in the corner and a large speaker system resting behind the couches. On the other side of the room are several instruments that are leaning against the wall, including an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar and even a drum set. Resting beside the instruments is a jukebox.**

 **By the back wall of the room is a large desk with three picture frames side-by-side, a box of half finished pizza, a pair of handguns and a ScrollPhone which is currently ringing.**

"Isn't that Jaune's guitar?" asked Ruby, recognizing the instrument which Jaune used to try and _serenade_ her partner.

Blake nods, recognizing the instrument as well. "Looks like it. The place must belong to Jaune, then."

Yang whistles while looking over the wide and expansive room. "Vomit boy is doing pretty good for himself if he got a place like that for himself."

Weiss clicks her tongue against her teeth. "So, where is the doofus anyway?"

 **Beside the desk is a door that is suddenly kicked open, revealing a twenty-four year old Jaune Arc who's still dripping wet from the shower he just took. Wearing only a pair of black pants and boots, Jaune brushes his hands through his still wet hair, uncaring that he isn't wearing a shirt. With steam still rising off of his body from his hot shower, Jaune walks towards his desk, noticing that he left his chair lying on the floor and leaning on its side.**

 **Shrugging his shoulders, Jaune kicks the fallen chair into the air. After the chair performs five flips in the air, it descends back down to the ground at an angle. As the chair touches the floor with two of its legs balancing it, Jaune performs a fluid motion that has him sit on the chair at the exact moment its other two legs touch the floor while also giving him the momentum to kick his feet up onto his desk. He purposely drops one of his feet harder on the desk so the force kicks up his ScrollPhone. The device flips into the air and would've hit the wall if not for Jaune catching it, and he does so without looking.**

 **Without looking at the caller's I.D., Jaune answers the phone. "Sorry, not open for business yet."**

 **Giving the caller no time to speak, Jaune disconnects the call and flips it back onto his table, ignoring how it lands perfectly back into place.**

Silence fills the room as everyone tries to process what they've just witnessed.

"..."

"..."

"..."

"... I want him."

Nobody expected Blake of all people to be the first to speak up, nor to claim to want the leader of Team JNPR.

"WHAT!?"

Blinking, Blake's eyes widen in horror before a deep blush covers her cheeks when she realizes that she said what she was actually thinking out loud.

Yang holds her stomach as she laughs her guts out, enjoying how her partner's face only seems to get redder and redder for every second that passes. "Hahaha! Does the kitty cat want some Jaune loving~"

Blake narrows her eyes towards her partner. She won't deny that she finds Jaune attractive, but she won't be made a fool of by her partner. "Don't you try to pretend you don't like what you see."

Chuckling, Yang shrugs her shoulders. "Unlike you, I can happily admit that Jaune looks pretty hot." How can she not think that after watching the future self of Jaune step out of the back room with water dripping off his toned chest and six pack? Or how about the fact that steam is pouring off his body and how she doesn't believe that all of it has to do with the hot shower? How about when he performed that sweet trick with his chair and ScrollPhone? "In fact, I'm nabbing him for myself the moment we get back to Beacon."

"You can't do that!" yelled Ruby, jumping out of her seat to face her older sister. Her facial expression is one of obvious panic.

Yang raises a brow. "And why can't I, Rubes?"

Ruby opens her mouth, but widens her eyes when she realizes she doesn't have an actual defence. Her cheeks colour and it's not all because she's standing in front of everyone with her mouth agape.

Such talk about her partner among other females would usually garner the attention and ire of Pyrrha Nikos, but the four-time champion is finding herself in a daze at the moment. Not only does she like how mature Jaune looks as an adult, but she's finding herself very happy with the results of Jaune's training. Nobody gets a body like _that_ without putting some serious effort into it.

"Fearless leader is so cool~!" exclaimed Nora in excitement. She especially liked that trick he did with the chair.

Ren can't help himself but agree with Nora. He'll admit that the move Jaune performed with the chair was very precise and measured. That's why he's having a hard time in believing that this is his own teammate and not a different universe's version. While he only has the best opinion of Jaune, Ren can't deny that his team leader has a lot he can approve on. _"Looks like Pyrrha's training did help after all."_

 **Leaning back against his chair, Jaune looks over the pair of pistols that are resting on his desk and smiles. One of the pistols is completely white in colour while the other is coloured completely black.**

 **Both semi-automatic customized pistols have their names etched into their sides, courtesy of their creator. The right-handed white one has been named, Ivory while the left-handed black one has been named, Ebony.**

 **Jaune can't believe that it took him so long to actually get himself a long-range weapon, since Crocea Mors doesn't mecha-shift like every other Hunters weapon. Thankfully, his amazing wife made him Ebony & Ivory for their wedding anniversary. **

Many heads perk up when they hear the word, _wife._

Gripping the arms of her chair, Pyrrha waits to find out who Jaune will end up with in the future.

 **Glancing over the three picture frames that are sitting beside each other on his desk, Jaune smiles in nostalgia. The picture on the right shows of himself, along with the rest of Team JNPR in their room, smiling at the camera. He remembers Nora was being very insistent on taking a group picture after their team first got together and she didn't take a no for an answer.**

 **He'll never understand how Ren can keep up with Nora's antics, especially after spending the last five years married to her. He can only pray that the child they're expecting will take more from the father than the mother.**

Ren chokes a bit on his own saliva in surprise while the energetic Nora widens her eyes in shock, blushing a storm.

Team RWBY and Pyrrha smirk as they look over at Ren and Nora who refuse to make eye-contact with each other.

Ozpin closes his eyes and smiles. "To be young again."

 **Jaune turns to the middle picture frame and his smile lessens, if only slightly. In the frame, it shows a picture of him giving an awkward smile to the camera while trying to breath as Nora, forcefully brings himself, Ren and Ruby into a group hug.**

 **While it's still a good picture, it constantly reminds Jaune that his partner isn't in it. It's of a time where Ruby became a part of their team for a while after Pyrrha's death.**

Many eyes widen in shock after finding out that Pyrrha, the _Invincible Girl,_ died.

"I... died?" muttered Pyrrha, finding herself covered in a cold sweat.

How did she die?

When did she die?

More importantly, why did she die?

Glynda and Ironwood narrow their eyes at the screen. "That picture. They don't look any much older than now" stated Ironwood.

Glynda nods in agreement, having figured that out as well. "Which means Ms. Nikos must've perished only recently."

Ozpin stares at the screen intently. It's no secret among his inner circle that he has been scouting Ms. Nikos into becoming the new Fall Maiden. If she has perished so early in life, it could possibly mean that the person who attacked Amber might have killed Pyrrha to get the other half of the Fall Maiden's power. _"Watching the future may possibly help us in the long run."_

Nobody notices how the edge of Cinder's lips twitch upwards for a brief second. _"So then, my plan worked after all. That's good to know."_

She didn't doubt her plan would fail, but it's still nice to know that everything will go as according to plan. Knowing that Ozpin is likely to give the, _Invincible Girl,_ the rest of the Fall Maiden's powers, Pyrrha's death has been planned from the start. She wouldn't have killed the powerful Huntress-in-training unless she knew the rest of her plan was ready to begin.

 **Closing his eyes to subdue his regret, Jaune looks over the third picture frame and whatever regret and doubt he feels vanishes as his smile returns, only with more warmth in his eyes.**

 **It's because the picture was taken on the greatest day in his life.**

 **The day he married his wife, Ruby Rose.**

 **The picture shows himself and Ruby standing by the alter. He's wearing a pure white suit, courtesy of his family's traditions. Standing on his left side are his groomsmen, Sun, Neptune, Fox and Yatsuhashi while Ren acts as his best man. Standing right beside him while wearing her red wedding dress is Ruby, looking as beautiful as ever. On her other side are her bridesmaids which are Weiss, Blake, Velvet, Coco and a crying, but happy Yang.**

As much as Pyrrha's death has come to a shock to her, Ruby can't help but blush at the sight of seeing herself standing by the alter with Jaune as her husband. Her blush soon changes into a little smug expression that she aims towards her older sister. Of course, Yang notices and wraps one arm around Ruby's neck while using the other to give her a noogie. "No, Yang! Stop! I'm sorry!"

Ignoring her partner's immaturity, Blake notices a certain detail about her partner in the picture. "Um, Yang. Did you look at yourself in the picture?"

Stopping, much to Ruby's relief, Yang looks back up at the screen to get a closer look at her future self. It didn't take her long to notice something different about her. "My arm..." To Yang's surprise, her right arm is missing and has been replaced with a robotic one.

"Something must've happened to have Yang lose her arm. Maybe a fight with a Grimm?" pointed out Weiss, wondering what could've made Yang lose her appendage.

"Must've been one hell of a Grimm to do that" jested Yang, grinning.

"For someone who just found out that she's going to lose her arm in the future, you're being a bit too chipper" deadpanned Weiss.

Yang shrugs. "True, but as the ghost guy said, this is only one of the possible futures. Anything can happen between now and then which can change the future, including a certain little sis of mine bagging a sexy hunk like that" she stated, smirking at her little sister.

Ruby responds by sticking her tongue out at her older sister.

After spending the last few minutes wallowing in emotional pain, Pyrrha perks up. _"Yang's right! This is only a possible future. This doesn't mean I'm definitely going to die or that Jaune will marry Ruby."_

Nora elbows Ren and points at Pyrrha when she notices her teammate's sudden change of emotions. At one moment, she was drowning in depression and the next, she's smiling in positivity. Nora's sure she can somehow hear birds chirping in the background for some reason.

Ren just shakes his head, silently telling Nora to let it go.

 **Jaune's taken out of his thoughts when the double doors to his office open. Jaune quirks a brow when a tall middle-aged man with a slim build, slightly tanned skin and a bushy moustache walks into his office and starts surveying his surroundings. "You a customer?" asked Jaune. Ever since he officially graduated, everyone from all over Remnant has been asking for his services.**

 **All the attention probably has something to do with him being the best Huntsman since Ozpin himself.**

"I find that very hard to believe" denied Weiss, folding her arms in front of her chest. "The dunce can barely hold his sword right, let alone use it properly."

"If it's a possible future, then it's obvious that Jaune is a lot stronger than you believe him to be" pointed out Ren, lightly glaring at the Schnee heiress who makes sure to glare back at him.

 _"What the hell is Watts doing there?"_ thought Cinder, glaring daggers at the disgraced scientist. She has never liked Watts, especially when he believes himself to be superior than herself. If not for her Queen deeming Watts useful, she would've burnt him to ash years ago.

Cinder isn't the only one who recognizes Watts. Ironwood narrows his eyes, remembering Watts as a scientist who was banished from Atlas after performing some less than moral projects.

Ozpin smiles, delighted in knowing that Jaune Arc has reached his full potential in the future.

Glynda notices her superior's smile and connects the dots easily enough. "You knew this would happen, didn't you."

"I always knew Mr. Arc would grow into a powerful Huntsman. Very few hold the amount of potential that young man has" stated Ozpin, smiling while taking a sip from his coffee cup.

Glynda's eyes widen in realization. Now she knows Ozpin's reason for accepting Jaune Arc's fake transcript papers. It's because he saw something in the teenager that she herself obviously didn't. It seems that the potential in Mr. Arc will someday lead him into becoming one of the most powerful Hunters on Remnant, just because Ozpin believed in him, unlike so many others. All of a sudden, Glynda feels like she has failed as a professor for dismissing Mr. Arc so easily. She hopes to remedy this by the time she returns to Beacon.

Pyrrha smiles, feeling nothing but pride for her partner. She always knew he would become something special and this only proves it. She just hopes that when the time comes, she'll be standing there, by his side.

 **Watts walks over to the pool table and slowly, drags his fingers across the wood as he walks closer to Jaune's office table. "Are you Jaune Arc?"**

 **"Who wants to know?" asked Jaune, sensing something disturbing about the man in his office. He has learned under Qrow's tutelage to always trust his gut and right now, his gut is telling him that the man in front of him is bad news.**

 **Watts walks in front of Jaune's office and stares down at the Huntsman. "Salem."**

 **Jaune's blue eyes spark for a brief moment before fading. "So, you're one of her lackeys, are ya? Gotta say, I'm a bit disappointed she only sent you" said Jaune, showing a lack of tension or aggression towards the man who has just told him he is in cahoots with Salem. He remains leaning back against his chair with his feet on the desk.**

 **Watts smirks and shakes his head. "She didn't send me to fight you. She only requested of me to give you an invitation." Watt's slowly places his hands against the edges of the table. "Please accept it."**

 **No more words are spoken as Watts, suddenly flips the table over, throwing all the objects on it into the air.**

 **Just as the table flips, Jaune uses one leg to kick off the object and backflip into the air, dodging the rolling table. After the table rolls into the wall, Jaune lands on top of the upturned piece of furniture and grabs Ivory from midair before aiming it in front of him. However, he sees that Salem's follower has vanished into thin air. Looking around the room, all he sees are his picture frames lying across the floor, as well as Ebony.**

 **Smirking, Jaune holsters Ivory and jumps off his desk before raising his left hand out, just in time to catch his falling pizza box. "Invitation, huh?"**

 **Picking up a slice of pizza, Jaune intends to eat it, until four Beowolves appear out of nowhere and impale his torso with their sharp claws. Usually, his Aura would've taken the attack for him, but he didn't expect four Grimm to suddenly appear out of nowhere and so, he let his guard down. Just before the Grimm appeared, he's positive that he saw glass shatter in the air before disappearing.**

"JAUNE!" cried Pyrrha, standing up from her chair and taking a few steps towards the screen, wishing she could somehow jump through the screen to save him.

Neo tilts her head, uncaring to seeing blondie getting cut down by the Grimm. She's more focused on how the Grimm appeared through the use of her Semblance, meaning that her future self is likely working with that weird guy with the moustache.

The rest of Team RWBY and NPR all stare at the screen in horror over watching their friend and teammate get killed so mercilessly.

 **Being impaled through the torso with so many sharp claws would kill anyone, no matter now tough and resilient they are. Nobody can survive having several claws pierced into their body.**

 **Nobody, but Jaune Arc.**

 **Jaune thrusts one hand out at the Beowolf in front of him, knocking the Grimm back into the far wall. The force is enough to kill the Grimm after it collides with the wall, breaking the Grimm's neck.**

 **The rest of the Grimm are so caught off guard, none of them move as Jaune walks away from them, taking one Beowolf for the journey after it gets its claw stuck in his back. The Grimm struggles to pull out its stuck claw, but all it manages to accomplish is scratch the floorboards while Jaune walks towards his jukebox, unhindered.**

 **Stopping for a second, Jaune back kicks the stuck Grimm into the air, making it drop on the other two Beowolves. With the Beowolf out of the way, Jaune walks towards the jukebox, seemingly ignoring the broken Beowolf claw that's sticking out of his chest. Much to his delight, Ebony is lying beside his jukebox, as well as the box of pizza he dropped after getting impaled. Walking past his handgun, Jaune picks up a slice of pizza before pulling out the broken claw from his chest, spilling blood all over the floor and not even wincing as he does so.**

 **At this point, the Beowolves have recovered from the shock and lunge at the Huntsman while his back is turned to them.**

 **Their simultaneous attack doesn't work. Just as the Beowolf are about to cut down the Huntsman, Jaune throws the claw over his head and straight into his ceiling fan. The claw cuts through the fan's support and drops the spinning blades on top of the Beowolves, killing the Grimm almost instantaneously.**

 **Jaune poses, keeping his hand up in the air while pointing a lone finger upwards. His posture showcases his impaled and injured body. A white glow surrounds his person, indicating that Jaune's Aura is taking effect. The large holes in his torso start to close up before they vanish entirely, leaving nothing but the blood sliding off his chest.**

 **Jaune doesn't need to turn around to know that more Grimm are showing up in his office out of nowhere. He can tell by the sound of glass shattering.**

Nobody can speak, since everyone, including Ozpin have been rendered speechless over Jaune's miraculous recovery.

"Nobody could've survived that" muttered Blake, eyes wide in pure disbelief. A single Beowolf's claw is plenty enough to make a fatal wound, so having several should've meant instant death for Jaune. Yet, he somehow manages to walk away from the injuries and even heal from them!

"And yet, Jaune did" replied Ruby, just as quiet as Blake. She didn't like seeing her friend get impaled by all those Grimm and so, seeing him walk away like that is giving her a hard time to properly process everything. While she's happy he survived, she can't comprehend how he done so.

"H-How is that possible?" Weiss asked, hoping that someone can shed some light on how Jaune survived getting his body ripped through several times and walk away without any sign of pain or even death.

"It was the kid's Aura" stated Qrow, although he's in as much shock as everyone else. Being an experienced Huntsman, he can hide it better. "Kid's Aura healed him of his injuries."

"Impossible! It doesn't matter how high someone's Aura is, nobody can heal themselves from that sort of injury" exclaimed Ironwood, shaking his head.

"Unless Mr. Arc's Semblance is the reason for his impossible regeneration" replied Glynda, looking over at Spectre. "Isn't that right?"

Spectre doesn't see any problem with providing the audience with some small information. "Jaune Arc's Semblance within your universe is Aura Amplification. Not only can it amplify the strength of anyone's Aura, but it can also amplify the strength in anyone else's Semblance."

Aura Amplification? No such Semblance has ever been recorded in Remnant, but the potential in it is something everyone can understand.

Ozpin furrows his brows in thought. _"Aura Amplification. A powerful Semblance if used correctly, but I wonder... does it have the capabilities of reviving Amber?"_ He has tried everything to heal and wake up the comatose Fall Maiden, but so far, it has only kept her in a stable state. With no other choice, he has decided to transfer the rest of Amber's Aura into a suitable host, in order to even the odds against Salem. However, if they manage to unlock Mr. Arc's Semblance, they might not need to transfer Amber's Aura anymore. If he can use it to heal from such fatal wounds, it should be technically possible for him to heal Amber of her own wounds.

 _"Interesting"_ thought Cinder, believing Jaune's Semblance to be very useful. Not only can it heal any possible wounds she or her coherts might attain in battle, but it could very well amplify her Fall Maiden Aura. It might just make it strong enough to match a full Maiden's power. She can only imagine the power she'd have with Jaune's Sembalnce AND the entirety of the Fall Maiden's power.

 **"This party's getting crazy! Let's rock."**

 **Jaune presses a button on his jukebox, but it fails to put on any music. After trying to turn it on again and again, Jaune awkwardly looks at the waiting Grimm behind him before smashing a fist into the device. While his fist crushes the top of the jukebox, it does its intended job and plays some rock music.**

 **Tapping his foot and nodding his head to the rhythm of the music, Jaune places the pizza slice into his mouth and turns around to punch an incoming Beowolf in the face, smashing it's skull into paste. The other Beowolves attack, but Jaune shows off his martial art skills by killing each Grimm with his hands and feet.**

 **After killing his third Grimm with a swift kick and stuffing the rest of the pizza in his mouth, Jaune pulls out Ivory from his pants and leans back to avoid a Beowolf's swinging claw. Another Beowolf mvoes in to attack, but soon finds Ivory in its face. A second later, Ivory blows a hole in the Grimm's face. Turning towards the previous Grimm, Jaune jumps over it as it lunges at him and lands on top of its back.**

 **Thinking of what Nora would do in a situation like this, Jaune smirks.**

"Oh no..." groaned Ren, covering his face with his palm.

"Oh yes!" cheered Nora, nearly vibrating in her seat from the excitement.

 **With one foot still on top of the Grimm's back, Jaune uses his other to kick off the floor and use the immobilized Beowolf as a skateboard. Cheering loudly, Jaune grabs Ebony off the floor as he skates past it and starts spinning the Beowolf around so he can shoot the rest of the Grimm while performing 360° spins. Four more Grimm fall to Jaune's guns and even one of them crashes through the bottom of Jaune's pool table, breaking two of its legs and making it into a ramp of sorts.**

 **Jaune doesn't miss out on the opportunity and skates the Beowolf up the pool table. Jaune backflips off the Grimm before it crashes into his ceiling. At the same time, another Beowolf jumps at Jaune, but misses and lands on the end of the pool table. Jaune lands on the upper half of the pool table, launching the unfortunate Beowolf on the other side in the air and through the ceiling.**

 **Landing in front of the pool table as it flips, time seems to slow down as the pool balls fly past Jaune's head. Once the cue ball flies over Jaune's shoulder, he raises Ebony and fires at it. Once the bullet hits the cue ball, it knocks it at the pile of flying pool balls which shoot in all directions, knocking and embedding into the surrounding Grimm. Grabbing Crocea Mors from his waist, Jaune turns around and cuts the pool table in half before kicking the upper half into a Grimm on his right and spartan kicks the lower half into a lunging Beowolf in front of him.**

 **Leaning Crocea Mors over his shoulder, Jaune looks around and sees no more Grimm. At least, none that are alive anyway.**

 **"What a mess" Jaune muttered, looking around his office, seeing holes in his ceiling, floorboards and even his walls. His pool table and office desk are destroyed and so is a lot of his music equipment. Sheathing Crocea Mors, Jaune walks over to the coat hanger and takes his blue trenchcoat before walking towards the door. Stopping in front of his door, Jaune gives his office another look over before shaking his head and smirking.**

 **"I can already tell, looks like this is gonna be one hell of a party!"**

The screen fades into black as Jaune kicks a boot towards the audience.

"Fearless leader is a badass!" cheered Nora, liking the future version of her team leader very much. She's feeling awfully proud that he manages to copy some of her own moves.

 _"I always knew you had it in you, Jaune"_ thought Pyrrha, smiling as she thinks about how far her crush has gone in the future. Where he struggles to kill a Ursa on his own, he grows up to be capable of killing over two dozen Beowolves and doing so with ease.

"That was... quite impressive" admitted Weiss with her cheeks coloured red.

Yang chuckled as she pats the awe inspired Ruby on top of her head. "You've got some competition, Rubes."

Ruby pouts her cheeks. "I won't lose to you!" she declared, pointing a finger in Yang's face.

Yang smirks and shakes her head. "I'm not just talking about me." Grabbing her little sister's head, Yang forces her to turn her head. "Look." Ruby does look and she quickly finds out what Yang means by that.

While she does have her arms folded and a permanent scowl on her face, Ruby doesn't miss the red colouring Weiss's cheeks. While she is only fifteen, Ruby isn't naive enough to not know Weiss is finding Jaune's future self attractive. She finds that ironic, since her partner has never given Jaune the light of day, even after all the tines he asked her out on a date.

From the similar red cheeks and twitching ears underneath the black bow, it's obvious Blake is feeling something for Jaune as well. Blake's attraction for Jaune is definitely a surprise to Ruby. Ever since Sun showed up, Ruby has always seen the pair together, usually with Blake scowling as she reads a book and Sun following after her like a lovesick puppy. While an odd pairing, Ruby thought the pair would end up together, romantically and not just because they are both Faunus. Yet, she has never seen Blake react like this to Sun.

"I fear I underestimated my student's potential" sighed Glynda, rubbing the bridge of her brow. Seeing her worst student defeat so many Grimm with ease has shaken Glynda's entire core.

Ozpin pats Glynda on the shoulder to offer whatever little comfort he can. "Nobody can blame you, Glynda. Mr. Arc isn't exactly trained like the rest of our students so there's no reason to beat yourself up about it.

"I shouldn't have given up on him from the very beginning. What kind of professor am I to judge a student like that?"

"Then you stop slacking off and fix your mistake." Surprisingly, the advice didn't come from Ozpin, but Qrow. "You now know you got a real prodigy on your hand so how about you stop wining and show him how to become a Huntsman. If not, I can always take him off your hands."

"That's... strangely encouraging, coming from you of all people" stated Ironwood.

Qrow shrugs his shoulders. "Well, don't get used to it. Although..." Qrow looks at Ozpin. "I am willing to take the kid off ya hands."

"Of course you would. While skilled, Mr. Arc acted very immature for his age. What kind of professional Huntsman skates on top of a Grimm and laughs?" deadpanned Ironwood.

Ozpin chuckles to himself. "We will see Qrow. How about we just continue watching the universes for now?"

Qorw clicks his tongue against his teeth. "Fine."

"Emerald."

The dark-skinned young woman can feel every muscle in her body tense from hearing Cinder's hard tone of voice. Very reluctantly, she slowly turns her head to make eye contact with the Fall Maiden and regret it almost immediately. Instead of the cold and calculating amber eyes of her boss, she's looking at the _**burning**_ amber eyes of her boss. "Y-Yes?"

"Why was I not made aware of Jaune Arc's apparent skill?"

Emerald swallows the saliva that has been piling in the back of her throat. "H-He doesn't have any skill to speak of, ma'am."

Cinder's burning eyes narrow and Emerald suddenly finds her throat to be very dry. She's not sure if it's because of her nerves or because Cinder is tapping into the Fall Maiden's power. Thankfully, Cinder reels in her powers, but Emerald is sure it's because Ozpin and his allies are in the same room, not because of her generosity.

"You have a lot of explaining to do, Emerald."

"Y-Yes ma'am."

Deciding to choose a universe before Nora does, Ren stands up and walks over to the countless shelves on the right side of the room. Looking over the colorful crystals, Ren decides to chose one where his friend isn't a psychopath or a villain. So, he chooses a blue crystal on the bottom shelf.

Spectre waves his unseen hand and levitates the blue crystal into the screen.

"Hey, where do you think the crystal goes?" Roman whispered to Neo.

Before Neo can answer, the screen brightens, beginning the next viewing of another universe.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"Hehehe, Jaune Arc. It's brave of you to face against me alone, but also quiet foolish, Assassin."**


	8. Assassin

**If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Assassin's Creed Brotherhood**

 **xXx**

 **The screen shows an overhead view of a large plaza that is filled with hundreds of people, mostly reporters who have been informed that the CEO of Schnee Dust Corporation, Jacque Schnee will be traveling through the plaza soon, via carriage.**

From the snowy buildings and advanced technology, James can tell that the plaza is somewhere in Atlas, although he doesn't recognize it. _"It might be possible that this location is somewhere in Mantle, if it hasn't been destroyed."_

 **A moment later, a fancy carriage can be seen driving through the plaza while being surrounded by SDC Security. It's not uncommon to see so much security surrounding Jacque Schnee, seeing as the White Fang have been attacking the SDC a lot more as of late.**

 **From inside his expensive and heavily defended carriage, the head of the Schnee Dust Company smirks as he looks out the window, watching as hundreds of people push against his line of security guards to get a word in. The worst of them are the reporters who are trying their best to get a word from him, but failing as he remains seated, waiting for his carriage to drive through the plaza so he can return to his mansion.**

 **As Jacque relishes in the attention, nobody notices a hooded figure standing in the shadows of a building on the outskirts of the crowd. Said figure watches as his target's carriage drives through the path that the security guards made to separate the crowds of people.**

 **Most wouldn't give the hooded figure much attention, unless they are to recognize the odd white robes he adorns. After all, dozens of corrupt politicians have found themselves assassinated by the hands of someone wearing the exact same white robes. Images and videos of the Assassin has been shown on the news so most people know the person by seeing their robes.**

 **They may also recognize the Assassin to be Jaune Arc.**

Mercury perks up when he hears the word 'Assassin'. Being trained and beaten by his father to learn the skills of an Assassin, Mercury is curious to see how this universe's version of Jaune pans out as an Assasin. From what he can tell after watching the other universes and possible future, he doubts he'll be disappointed.

"Jaune's an Assassin? I thought the blue crystals are universes in which he isn't a villain?" pointed out Blake, wondering if there's any pattern to the crystals at all.

"Maybe he's a good Assassin?" said Nora, tilting her head sideways. "He does only kill corrupt officials."

Roman covers his mouth with his hand to hold back his laughter. "Hear that, Neo? Crazy thinks there's such a thing as a good Assassin" he chuckled with Neo silently copying him.

Weiss flinches, realizing that her father is likely the target of Jaune. She feels slightly guilty, due to not knowing how she should _actually_ feel about this.

The downside, he's her father.

The upside, he's her _father._

 **Jaune isn't the only one who's set on ending the life of Jacque Schnee, but he'll have to disappoint the White Fang by getting to him first. Being a member of the Brotherhood, Jaune kills those who are evil and corrupt and Jacque Schnee fits the criteria, perfectly.**

 **With his eyes set on his target, Jaune steps out of the shadows and walks into the crowd of people who make a path for him when he gets too close to them.**

 **Jaune's presence isn't missed by the SDC Snipers that are perched on the rooftops of the buildings surrounding the plaza. One of the several snipers recognizes Jaune's white robes to be belonging to the same person who has been killing politicians left and right. Figuring out why the man is here, the SDC Sniper lifts up his sniper rifle and aims at the Assassin, but just as he's about to pull the trigger, something blocks the sunlight from his eyes. Looking up to see what it is, the sniper widens his eyes before he finds a blade stuck in his throat.**

"So he isn't alone" stated Cinder, watching the proceedings with interest. She's curious on how the Assassin plans to kill his target, especially when he's in such a heavily guarded area.

"He must trust his allies a lot if he's willing to step out of hiding. He trusts that they can take down the snipers before they can gun him down" stated Mercury, agreeing with the Assassin's plan. If it was him, he would take out the snipers first, but he isn't exactly sure what the rest of Jaune's plan is. _"Show me how you get out of this one."_

 **As Jaune walks through the crowd, two SDC security guards notice him and move in to stop him. Before they can subdue the Assassin, two arrows come out of nowhere and pierce into both of the guard's chests. As the two guards collapse to the floor, Jaune walks past them and makes his way through the rest of the crowd.**

 **By the time he makes it to the front of the crowd, someone finally manages to recognize his robes and call out for help. The cry catches the attention of two SDC security guards who are seperating the crowd from the carriage. But, by the time they turn around, Jaune has already walked through the rest of the crowd. Stepping into their personal space, Jaune unsheathes the Hidden Blades that are in his bracers and stabs both guards in the stomach.**

 **Stepping out of the crowd and killing two SDC security guards brings everyone's attention onto Jaune, including the rest of Jacque Schnee's security force.**

 **Two SDC security guards turn from following the back of Jacque's carriage and raise their rifles to gun down the Assassin. However, Jaune is much faster than them and has already thrown two throwing knives into their chests. The pair collapse to the floor as the rest of Jacque Schnee's security force turns around to face the threat, stopping the carriage in the process.**

Mercury grins, finding the performance impressive. He's sure that if he didn't kill his father, the man would be impressed as well. "He's good. Very good."

"He's a professional, that's for sure" stated James, frowning as he watches the Assassin version of Jaune Arc take out the security guards with ease. Some probably believe that Jaune stepping out of the crowd is arrogant, but Ironwood can tell that it's all part of the plan.

"He used the crowd as cover and took down the security in close range while his compatriots eliminated all the snipers in the area" said Glynda, pushing up her glasses. "As much as I hate to say it, Mr. Arc is a skilled killer in this universe."

Yang whistles, showing how much she's impressed with Jaune's skill as an Assassin.

Blake nods in agreement with her partner. Preferring the quieter options when fighting, the Faunus can admit that Jaune's tactics are very good for the current situation. With so many witnesses and security, Jaune knows he can't take out Jacque without being seen and shot. Instead, he uses the crowd as cover to move closer to his target while also removing any security forces in his way, dwindling their numbers down, one at a time. While the robes he is wearing stands out, there are hundreds to thousands of people of all sizes, wearing all sorts of colorful clothes that allows Jaune's robes to blend in more easily. At the same time, his allies are eliminating any of the snipers who may spot him from the rooftop.

"How's Jaune-Jaune going to get out of this, Ren?" asked Nora, seeing that Jaune is now in the open at the plaza.

Ren studies the screen, intently. "His stance indicates that he's confident. Jaune must have a plan prepared for such a situation."

 **Now in the open, Jaune stops as the rest of Jacque's security force surrounds him, each one aiming their rifles at a vital spot on his body.**

 **Once he's sure that the Assassin is subdued, Jacque steps out of carriage with an arrogant smirk on his face. "Hehehe, Jaune Arc. It's brave of you to face against me alone, but also quite foolish, Assassin" told Jacque, spreading his arms out to show himself off to the infamous Assassin, believing himself to be safe from all harm.**

 **During Jacque's speech, Jaune hears the sound of an eagle's cry. Looking into the sky, he sees a majestic eagle fly overhead before disappearing in the distance, leaving nothing but a lone feather that he catches in his hand. Jaune looks at the feather in his hand before he looks back up at Jacque. If anyone has been looking closely enough, they would see Jaune's smirking face underneath his hood.**

 **All of a sudden, arrows start flying in every direction with each one hitting an SDC security guard in a vital area. Each of the security guards collapse with Jaune pushing one away when his body starts falling in his direction.**

 **Jacque's eyes widens at seeing his entire security force taken care of in the matter of seconds.** _ **"I thought he worked alone!?"**_ **Looking around, Jacque can't see where the arrows came from. All he sees are the idiotic people who are still watching the proceedings take place. He can even see a news crew recording everything with a camera, likely showing the rest of Remnant what is happening.**

 **It's a good thing he has a back up plan for such an emergency. "Knights!" he yelled.**

 **Jaune calmly watches as a dozen Atlesian Knight-200s pour out of a nearby building and line up in front of Jacque, each one wielding a rifle that is aimed at Jaune.**

 **Jaune would be in trouble if he's fighting the dozen Atlesian Knights on his own. He's no slouch when it comes to hand-to-hand combat, but his skills are more suited to enemies made of flesh, not metal. So, it's a good thing he isn't on his own.**

 **Stepping out of nearby shadows, three figures in similar robes walk out to stand beside Jaune, each one wielding their own iconic weapon.**

 **To Jaune's right steps out a tall and thin figure who has a pair of green pistols with sickles-like blades in his hands. Not much can be seen from his appearance as he's wearing the iconic Assassin hooded robes and has a cowl covering his face. However, a noticeable stripe of pink hair can be seen under his hood.**

 **Beside him is a shorter, but obviously female figure who adorns a set of white robes with a mixture of pink colours designed in it. With a wide grin, she leans her large hammer over her shoulder, eying each of the Atlesian Knights.**

 **On Jaune's left is another female, but she is more noticable because of the red braid that is hanging out of her hood. With a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, she nods towards Jaune before taking a fighting stance.**

"Is that... us?" asked Pyrrha, watching as the alternate versions of herself, Ren and Nora back Jaune up. The sight of Team JNPR together in another universe is enough to bring a bright smile to the champion's face. She doesn't even care that they're assassins.

"Team JNPR for the win!" cheered Nora as she starts jumping on her chair. "Team JNPR rules, Team RWBY drools!"

"Hey!" cried Ruby who doesn't like hearing her team being slandered like that.

"Those are fighting words" remarked Yang, narrowing her eyes while clenching her fists. It's all in good fun until someone insults her team like that.

 **Smiling, Jaune unsheathes Crocea Mors from his hip and turns towards Jacque. As one, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha and Ren take a step forward before starting a sprint towards the Atlesian Knights. As the androids line up their shots at the Assassins, Team JNPR jump into the air with their weapons raised to meet the Atlesian Knights.**

Just as the two sides are about the clash, the screen fades, much to the surprise and horror of many.

"What gives? I was watching that!" cried Nora, pointing at the screen while crocodile tears fall down her face. She wanted to see Team JNPR break some legs!

Spectre turns to face the annoyed and curious audience. "The reason is because that is only one of many scenes that can play out in the universe. I can't exactly show you everything that happens in the universe, can I?"

Nora opens her mouth to complain, but then closes it when an idea comes to mind. "Does that mean we can view other scenes from universes we've already seen?"

Spectre nods. "Yes, if that is what you wish."

Nora's excitement reaches almost a new level as she raises her hand above her head, nearly dislocating it from the amount of force pushed into it. "Then, I want to see more of Jaune-Jaune kicking Demon butt!"

Spectre nods, k wooing of which universe she speaks of. "Very well."

Spectre merely turns around as the screen starts rippling, indicating the start of another universe, or rather, one they've already seen.

"That's the one with the Ten Commandments?" asked Qrow, having a hard time to remember what is in what universe after watching so many.

Ozpin nods after taking a sip of coffee. "Yes. It's the universe where Mr. Arc easily dispensed with two of the Ten Commandments."

"This is going to be awesome" stated Yang. Not only does Jaune have a rocking body, but he's as arrogant as he's strong. In other words, he's _very_ strong.

Raven smirks, having no problem with watching the unbelievably powerful Jaune Arc fight even more Demons. She might even learn a thing or two from watching.

The rippling on the screen fades as the screen shows the audience more of the universe.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"How very prideful."**

 **"That's exactly who I am. As of this moment, you're face-to-face with Jaune Arc, the Lion Sin of Pride."**


	9. Lion Sin of Pride

**If you have any suggestions, PM me because I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy**

 **xXx**

Everyone have been expecting anything to happen when the screen starts to show them the universe.

Jaune facing another member of the Ten Commandments?

The reveal of the other members of the Seven Deadly Sins?

Maybe even a more thorough back story of the universe's history?

What nobody expected to see is the city of Vale in mostly ruins with large Demons either stomping through the destroyed streets or flying overhead, firing concentrated blasts of energy from their mouths.

"Dear Gods" gasped Ozpin, watching his worst nightmare come to life, but instead of Grimm prowling through the city streets, Demons of sizes that match or surpass a Goliath are destroying everything and everyone in their sights.

"There's so many of them" whispered Emerald, staring at the screen in shock. Red and Grey Demons tower over the buildings of Vale, slaughtering everyone they come up against, no matter if they're Hunters or civilians.

"I'm starting to think it's a good thing that we have Grimm and not Demons" said Ren, hating the thought of actually going against such horrific monsters. Even now, he can see professional Hunters battle against one of the obese Red Demons and lose.

Cinder hides her smirk as she watches Vale get destroyed and turn into a smoking pile of rubble. _"If they're lucky, the Grimm will make shorter work with them once the invasion takes place"_ she thought, eying everyone else in the audience. Unknown to any of them, they are staring at what will happen to Vale once the Vytal Festival goes underway.

"Not even Beacon is spared of the destruction" said Glynda, staring at Beacon that lies in the distance of Vale. While the academy is still standing, everyone has a hard time ignoring how the roof of the tower is missing, as if cut off by a blade. They also notice several Hunters standing in what use to be Ozpin's office.

 **Nearly a dozen Hunters have gathered on top of what remains of Beacon Tower and are ready to fight any Demon they meet, wither it be a Red Demon or a Grey Demon.**

 **Unfortunately for them, they didn't expect the Demon that shows up to be one of the Ten Commandments, nor one of its most powerful members.**

 **The Demon appears standing on a pile of rubble on the edge of the tower, seeing no threat in any of the Humans or Faunus that await him. Standing tall and muscular with silver hair, Estarossa watches as the Hunters ready their weapons to attack him.**

 **Until they all drop their weapons to the floor.**

"Are they surrendering?" asked Qrow, seeing his alternate self drop his weapon.

"No" answered Ozpin, shaking his head. "Notice how their arms are shaking. They were forced to drop their weapons."

 **"W-What happened?"**

 **"I can't move my arms!"**

 **"I can't use my power either."**

 **"What has that blasted Demon done to us?!"**

 **Estarossa decides to answer their questions. "Anyone who stands before me with hatred in his heart loses the ability to cause pain in others. I am Estarossa, the one who is granted the Commandment of Benevolence."**

 **Qrow grits his teeth in rage as he struggles to take back control of his body. As much as he tries, he can't move his body a single inch towards the Demon. "Benevolence? What a load of crap. You're the one who murdered the Captain" he growled, failing to overpower the power of the Demon's Commandment.**

"What a simple, but terrifying power" said Weiss, understanding what the Commandment actually does. "It's only natural for someone to hold a small bit of hatred towards their enemy, even if it's only a little bit. That means no matter who he fights, the Demon can use his Commandment to simply force them to stop any acts of violence towards him."

Blake nods as her ears twitch, nervously. "That's right. Right now, he can kill all of the Hunters and they can't do anything about it."

Yang glares at the screen or rather, at Estarossa. "That's nothing more than a cheat. Not cool."

Pyrrha remembers an important piece of information from the last time they viewed the same universe. "But doesn't the Commandment work on the Demons as well? That's why Galand was turned to stone, because he lied to himself."

Ren nods. "That's true. That means the Demon either feels hatred, but can't kill them or worse, doesn't feel hatred and will kill the Hunters without them being capable of defending themselves" he remarked.

 **Pitifully, Estarossa smiles as he looks down at the Humans and Faunus. "You poor things. Allow me to save you from all this suffering."**

 **However, before Estarossa can move ahead and kill them, one of the Hunters steps out of the crowd, much to the surprise of everyone on the tower, including Estarossa.**

 **"What's this? The Commandment doesn't work on him?" whispered Estarossa to himself as he watches the Human step closer, making cracks on the floor for every step he takes. Out of all the races, he has never seen a Human of all things ignore his Commandment.**

 **Estarossa studies the Human's appearance, noting his large body and blonde hair, as well as the heavy-looking set of pure white armour with blue highlights he's wearing. He also can't ignore the massive longsword in the Human's hand, since the weapon is emitting some sort of heat off of it.**

Weiss blinks. "Is that..?"

"Jaune is here to save the day!" yelled Ruby, raising her hands over her head in a cheerful manner. She knows that Jaune's going to stomp that big bad Demon into dust!

Blake notices her partner looking like she's in a mood. "What's wring with you?"

Yang pouts while leaning her chin against her arm. "Stupid vomit boy is wearing too much armour."

"Of course that's why you're in such a mood" sighed Blake. The Faunus won't deny that she's displeased with seeing Jaune wearing so much armour that covers his entire body, but she can say that the large set of white and blue armour does look good on him. _"Kinda looks like the armour plates my universe's Jaune has, but a lot bigger."_

Ironwood scrunches his brows as he struggles to think. "I don't understand. How can he move while under the Commandment's effect?"

Ozpin hums while in thought. "It could be possible that the reason Mr. Arc is capable of movement is because he feels no hatred in his heart?" he answered, believing that to be the most obvious answer.

Qrow tilts his head while looking up at the large screen. "Yea~, I'm not so sure about that, Oz. Kid doesn't seem all that pure in this universe."

 **Being taller than Estarossa, Jaune stands lower on the pile of rubble so he can be on the same eye level as the Demon. "Of course it doesn't. Why should I bear any hatred towards someone who's obviously weaker than myself? All I feel is pity."**

 **Estarossa smirks, figuring out why the Human can so easily ignore his Commandment. It isn't because he has a heart of gold like most would think, but because he sees himself on top of the food chain and pities everyone else for being lower than him. Apparently, this includes him as well. "How very prideful."**

 **Jaune takes another step forward and stops when his face is only inches away from Estarossa's. The Demon stares up at Jaune, looking very serious the moment Jaune put his face close to his. The Human stares down at Estarossa, feeling nothing but pity for the Demon.**

 **"That's exactly who I am. At this moment, you're face-to-face with Jaune Arc, the Lion Sin of Pride."**

"Wait a second, you're telling me the reason Jaune isn't effected by the Demon's Commandment is because he's too prideful?" asked Blake, her ears and brows twitching.

Yang starts chuckling. "Looks like there's someone more prideful than our own Weiss-cream."

"Hey!"

Ozpin closes his eyes to ease his slowly rising migraine. "Not... how I thought it would be."

Qrow laughs as he points a finger at Ozpin. "At least you're right about him feeling no hatred in his heart. He's too full of pride to have any hatred!"

Raven smirks, enjoying the sight of seeing Jaune take charge. She likes a man who's confident, but this is on a entirely different scale altogether.

 **Estarossa's serious expression changes as he smirks up at the Human. "Oh~, I see now. You're the Human Melascula was babbling about who defeated Galand. Interesting."**

"Melascula? Why does that name ring a bell?" wondered Cinder, looking up at the far off ceiling for answers.

"I think that was the Demon Jaune killed after defeating the Demon in red armour" reminded Emerald, having a hard time forgetting the introduction of this universe's version of Jaune Arc.

"That's right" Cinder nodded, remembering the Demon now. Unlike Galand, Melascula didn't impress Cinder all that much, since all she did was blind Jaune and try to eat his soul when his back was turned. While the devouring of souls is an interesting ability, it was overshadowed by the Demon being burned alive from the inside after consuming Jaune's own soul.

"How on Remnant did she survive something like that?" wondered Weiss, remembering the Demon's screams as she's set ablaze before collapsing into a ravine. The screams has Weiss shiver when remembering the event.

"Looks like the Demons are a lot more resilient than Grimm" said Ren, watching to see what will happen between Jaune and the Demon.

 **"I ask that you do not harbor any hatred towards me. If you were to be stricken by the effects of your own Commandment, than I wouldn't have the fun of fighting you" asked Jaune, knowing that he'll win the fight with the Demon anyway, but he wants to at least enjoy the fight.**

 **Estarossa smiles. "Well now, you're nicer than I thought you'd be."**

 **Jaune smiles back at the Demon. "You're not the first to say that."**

 **In an instant, Jaune finds his head forced upwards after Estarossa uppercuts him. Spitting out a mouthful of blood and having no idea what just happened, Jaune only has a split second to see Estarossa appear over him before he's punched through the floor of Beacon Tower.**

 **Estarossa appears at the bottom of the tower and smiles when he sees the Human leaning against the tower's wall, trying to recover from the blows. Giving him no chance to do so, the Demon kicks the Human in the chest, launching him upwards until he's flying an extra twenty feet higher than the tower. Before Jaune's body starts to fall back down, Estarossa appears before his flying body and punches him back onto the top of the tower, causing a dust cloud to appear from the impact.**

"Not even Jaune's a match for him?" muttered Blake, watching as the most powerful version of Jaune get beaten black and blue.

"I don't understand!" exclaimed Pyrrha. "He could defeat the other two Demons, easily. Why is he struggling with this one?"

Ironwood glares at the Demon in the screen. "It doesn't matter how powerful you are, there will always be someone who is stronger than you. Looks like Mr. Arc from this universe is going to learn this lesson the hard way."

Glynda pushes her glasses up, trying to ignore the nervous sweat, dripping across her face. "Still though, Mr. Arc is quite powerful in this universe. It's hard to imagine the Demon is even stronger than him."

Ozpin hums as he takes a drink from his coffee cup. "I don't believe Mr. Arc is out of this battle just yet."

 **Landing on top of the tower, Estarossa walks over to the Human who he sees is kneeling on his feet. Smirking, he prepares to finish the Human off. That is, until he sees a blinding light at his right side. At the last second, he manages to lift up his arms to block the large ball of light which turns out to be Jaune's own fist.**

 **While not strong enough to break through his guard, the punch manages to force the Demon to skid backwards by a couple of feet. "Nice try" smirked Estarossa, but his cocky smirk dies as he collapses to his knees. With his eyes wide open, Estarossa manages to stop himself from planting his face onto the floor by placing his hand down to balance himself.**

 **"What's wrong? Did you find something down there on the ground?" asked Jaune, staring down at the Demon who is on his knees.**

"Even after taking a beating like that, he's still as prideful as ever" laughed Yang, pointing at the screen.

"Go Fearless leader! Kick that Demon's ass" yelled Nora, ignoring Ren who tries to calm her down.

"You willing to make another bet?" Mercury asked Roman while grinning.

Roman scoffs and turns his head away. "As if. I've learned my lesson and I don't want to lose anymore money."

 **Qrow smirks and chuckles. "Show off. Now, what are you trying to do? Give us all a heart attack?" Qrow's smirk fades when he hears the Demon start to laugh.**

 **Laughing, Estarossa pushes himself back up to his feet. "You know, I just can't get enough of the outside world. This is the kind of fight I've been waiting for." A swirl of Darkness appears across Estarossa's chest and the handle of a blade pops out of it. Grabbing the blade's handle, Estarossa pulls the weapon out of his chest and takes a battle stance. "If I'm facing you, I don't have to hold back."**

 **Jaune doesn't look impressed with the Demon's declaration. "How impudent of you" he replied, swinging Crocea Mors downwards. The powerful attack should have cut through Estarossa like it did to Galand. Instead, a deep cut appears across Jaune's right shoulder, spraying blood out from his body and staining his white armour.**

 **Jaune glances at the wound on his shoulder, inwardly surprised that he suffered from such a wound in the first place. What he's most surprised about is that he didn't see the Demon move.**

 **Estarossa raises his left hand and smirks. "Surprised you a little, didn't I? This is my magical power, Full Counter. I can deflect back any physical attack with double the impact" he explained for the Human.**

"In other words, Jaune just cut himself open with his own attack" stated Pyrrha, hating to see Jaune get hurt, no matter what universe he's in. She dislikes how the Demon has such a powerful ability that can render Jaune's attacks useless, while also harming him with those same attacks.

"Sounds a lot like Yang's Semblance" said Blake, recognizing the similarities between Yang's Semblance and the Demon's magical power.

Yang scoffs while folding her arms across her chest. "As if. He doesn't have to feel the pain to use his power" she remarked. "If you ask me, it's a big cheat."

 **Jaune pats his injured shoulder, looking quite impressed, but not for the Demon's sake. "Interesting. No wonder I actually felt a bit of pain just now. I do pack quite a punch, don't I?"**

 **Estarossa leans his blade over his right shoulder and laughs. "Haha! You're really unbelievable. How proud can one man be?" he laughed. "Before I kill you, I have to know, What is your name again?"**

 **"The name's Jaune. Commit it to memory before I kill you."**

Qrow leans forward on his chair, ignoring his flask of _alcohol-free_ liquid to watch the upcoming battle closely. Aftwr witnessing the power display between both combatants, he knows that the fight is going to be epic. "How do you think it's going to end with those two?" he asked.

Ironwood refuses to blink as he awaits to see a fight break out between the Huntsman and Demon. "Whatever the outcome, it won't be pretty."

 **Jaune spreads his legs and holds up his left hand. "To show my respect to you for getting serious and not holding back, I will do you a courtesy of the same." Summoning his magic power, Jaune conjures a miniature sun into the palm of his hand. "But don't think that your death will be an easy one."**

 **"How ruthless" chuckled Estarossa, undisturbed by the Human's incredible magical power. "Have you forgotten where you're standing? If you use that kind of magic power, the people behind you will be charred to a crisp."**

 **Looking behind him, Jaune sees that the Demon has a point. Other than himself, nobody is immune from his magic power and he can tell that the other Hunters are feeling the effects of his power. The heat from the miniature sun is melting their weapons, as well as burning their skin, much to their painful dismay. Not wanting to cause harm to his fellow, but weaker Hunters, Jaune turns towards Qrow. "Qrow. Would you be so kind as to confirm that White Lake lies just in front of the south gate?"**

 **Qrow doesn't appreciate Jaune burning him with his magical power. "Yea, so what if it does? We're all about to get burned up out here!"**

 **Jaune turns back towards the Demon. "Alright then." Much to Estarossa's surprise, Jaune launches the miniature sun a him. Surprised that the Human could be so careless, Estarossa fails to move and gets hit by the ball of fire that explodes upon impact, launching the Commandment off the tower.**

 **Flying across the sky for two miles, Estarossa's body slows down as it glides just overhead White Lake. With his body facing upwards, Estarossa can see Jaune standing on top of another miniature sun which is flying even higher than him.**

 **From atop his miniature sun, Jaune stares down at the flying Demon in contempt. "I told you. Your death wasn't going to be an easy one." Jaune jumps off the miniature sun which launches the large ball of fire downwards. Unfortunately for Estarossa, his flying body is in the ball of fire's trajectory.**

 **"Cruel Sun" Jaune announced as the ball of flames hits Estarossa and launches the Demon down into the lake. Even when at the bottom for the lake, the sun refuses to go out as it continues to push down on Estarossa while burning him in the process.**

 **Still in the air, Jaune aims his free hand towards the boiling lake and clenches his fist. "Followed by Pride Flare." In an instant, Jaune's move causes an explosion which evaporates all the water in the lake.**

"What a monster" gasped Emerald, staring at the hollowed out lake. She doubts even Cinder can cause such a large lake to evaporate like that.

Cinder smirks, enjoying this universe's of Jaune even more. Not only does she appreciate his pride, as well as his strength, but the fact he can summon a literal sun in his hand makes the pyromaniac in her shiver in joy. _"If only you were in my universe. The things I would show you"_ she thought, licking her lips.

"Jaune is a lot hotter than I thought" punned Yang, making the rest of Team RWBY groan.

The rest of team (J)NPR stare at the screen in awe to what Jaune just did. Not only did he launch the Demon two miles out of Vale, but also managed to evaporate an entire lake by using what looks to be a miniature sun.

"It appears we are only witnessing the true strength of Mr. Arc" pointed out Ozpin, viewing he screen in great interest.

 **Landing in the middle of the waterless lake, Jaune walks in search for the Demon, no matter if he be alive or dead. He's having a hard time searching, due to the large amount of steam that is obstructing his vision. Noticing a figure behind a cloud of steam, Jaune stops and watches the figure step out into view.**

 **"Well, well. Pretty impressive attack, I really felt it. I'm glad I released my Darkness. Any later would've been rough" said Estarossa, showing that all his clothes, but his pants have been destroyed, showcasing the Demon's badly burnt skin. Even when the Demon should be in incredible pain, Estarossa remains smiling as a shroud of Darkness emits from his body. "Alright, I think it's time to settle this" sighed Estarossa as the Darkness washes over his body for a moment to heal his injuries, including his badly burnt skin.**

 **Jaune raises his free hand over his head and summons another miniature sun. "I suppose that may be the one thing both of us agree on" he replied, preparing to finish off the Demon.**

 **Smirking, Estarossa holds up his hand towards his opponent. "Armoured Blackout."**

 **"Hmm?" hummed Jaune when he notices a shroud of Darkness cover up his left arm, as well as his sun.**

 **Kicking off the ground, Estarossa lunges at Jaune. "It's over!"**

 **Jaune brandishes Crocea Mors with his free hand. "What are you talking about?" he asked before swinging his massive blade down at the Demon.**

 **However, Jaune's powerful blow doesn't harm the Demon who says only two words. "Full Counter."**

 **Widening his eyes, a bright explosion envelops Jaune as Estarossa deflects his attack with double the strength. When the explosion subsides, Jaune shows to have suffered from the attack, now bleeding from his head, as well as his mouth.**

 **"My Darkness just swallowed up that sun of yours. In terms of magical powers, I clearly have the upper hand. Not to mention Full Counter will deflect all physical attacks right back a you. You understand what that means, don't you~?" Estarossa smirks. "I had fun, Jaune."**

Weiss furrows her brows. "As much as I hate to say it, he has a point. If his Darkness can stop Jaune summoning his suns and he can deflect all physical attacks back at him, Jaune doesn't have much of a chance against the Demon."

Ren turns towards the Schnee heiress and raises a brow. "And when did you suddenly care about what happens to Jaune?

Weiss turns to glare at Ren. "Well, clearly I don't want the Demon to win."

Yang shrugs her shoulders. "Could've fooled me" she said before turning towards Ruby who doesn't seem fazed with Jaune's injuries. "You okay, Ruby?"

Ruby nods, refusing to take her eyes off the screen. "I'm fine. Just waiting to see Jaune kick the Demon's butt, that's all."

"And how is he going to do that?" asked Weiss, folding her arms. "He can't attack the Demon with his magic or physical attacks. He has no way to defeat the Demon without bringing harm to himself."

"I wouldn't say that." Blake decides to chime in. "From what I deduced earlier, Jaune's powers somehow relate to the sun. I'm guessing that the higher the sun is, the stronger Jaune gets."

Weiss looks down at the floor in thought. "If that's true, what's your point?"'

Blake turns to make direct eye contact with her teammate. "My point is, the sun looks to be close to noon. That's when the sun is at the highest, meaning that is when Jaune is at his strongest."

 **Confident in his victory, Estarossa is surprised when a deep cut appears across his chest, making the Demon take a step back as his blood spills out of his wound. While not fatal in any way for the Demon, it's a big surprise to him since he didn't see Jaune move to attack him.**

 **"My attacks have no effect on you?" The Darkness surrounding Jaune's sun disappears as his power skyrockets even higher than before. "Who decided that? Your Darkness swallowed up my sun? Who decided that?"**

 **Estarossa can't comprehend how the Human is so powerful and it only seems like he's getting stronger by the second. "I never saw his attack coming. Who the hell is this guy anyway? His power level is soaring even higher than it was before." The Commandment's eyes widens as Jaune's entire body seems to enlarge before his eyes, making him feel small in comparison.**

 **"And now, for Cruel Sun." Standing tall and proud, Jaune makes quite an intimidating figure, especially when he's holding up a literal sun that is the size of a building with only a single finger. "I will be the one to decide..." Jaune closes his eyes for a second, but when he opens them, Estarossa can only see bloodlust in those blue eyes of his. "...Die."**

 **Estarossa tries to move, but his body refuses to follow his orders. All the Demon can do is scream in fear as the sun gets closer and closer.**

 **With a grunt, Jaune swings his arm and throws the sun into Estarossa's body, launching the Demon away as the sun starts burning his body to a crisp.**

 **"J-JAUNE, Y-YOU BASTARD!" roared Estarossa as the sun envelops his entire body.**

 **Grunting, Jaune clenches his fist to increase the power within the miniature sun. All of a sudden, the ball of flames doubles in speed and for miles, it plunges through the landscape, taking the screaming Demon for the ride. In the distance, Jaune can see an explosion occur where his sun manages to land.**

 **"Now then, time to get back to Vale."**

The screen fades, showing the injured, but victorious blonde in the middle of the dry lake.

"Amazing" muttered Glynda in awe. She may be an experienced Huntress, but even the proud Glynda Goodwitch will admit that she wouldn't last a minute against either can have all the experience in the world, but it will be worthless against Jaune Arc's overwhelming power.

"To think, the kid could even summon an actual sun into his hands. That's a bit too overpowered if you ask me" stated Qrow, throwing his arms outwards.

"Overpowered or not, it proved to be quite an interesting bout, wouldn't you agree?" asked Ozpin. Outwardly, he doesn't show much emotion, but inwardly, he's sweating after witnessing the power that this universe's version of Jaune Arc holds. _"If I were to retain my full power, I doubt even I could have matched against Mr. Arc."_

"Jaune is so cool. What do you think he'll be like in the next universe?" Ruby asked her friends, having grown excited over watching such an _epic_ fight between Jaune and the Demon.

"I'm guessing either a badass vigilante or a badass bad guy" answered Blake, frowning when she says the latter.

"So then, who goes next?" asked Pyrrha.

For a moment, everyone looks at each other, waiting for someone to get up to pick a new universe. After a moment of silence, Neo is the one who pushes off her seat and skips to the shelves on the left side of the room. After skimming through the crystals, she eyes an orange crystal with a small bit of blue in the centre of it. Silently nodding to herself, she picks up the crystal and shows it off to Spectre.

Nodding, Spectre levitates the crystal from Neo's grasp and into the screen that begins to ripple.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"Bogeyman?"**

 **"Well, Jaune wasn't exactly the Bogeyman. He was the one you send to kill the fucking Bogeyman."**


	10. Baba Yaga

**If you have any suggestions, PM me cause I don't read reviews.**

 **Enjoy.**

 **xXx**

 **Lately, life has been nothing but depressing for Jaune Arc.**

 **Just three hours ago, he attended the funeral of his late wife, Ruby Rose and is only now cleaning up his house after the last of the guests left so he can mourn in solitude.**

Yang winces, knowing full well what losing a loved one can do to someones head. She doesn't know this personally, but she has witnessed her father become a wreck after the death of her mother, Summer and it took herself almost getting killed to knock him out of his funk. Even now, he hasn't been the same, but he tries for both her and Ruby.

Ruby frowns, hating to see Jaune's emotionless face as he cleans around their house. While liking the idea that they got married, even in a different universe, it's a lot different when she's dead in this one. She knows her dad misses her mom very much so she can somewhat understand what this world's version of Jaune is going through.

 **Picking up a dirty plate and glass, Jaune turns towards the door when he hears the doorbell go off. Dropping everything, he walks towards the doorway, wondering who could be at his door this late at night. Opening the front door to his large house in Patch, he sees a woman with a clipboard, standing in front of him with a dog kennel by her feet.**

 **"Jaune Arc?" she asked.**

 **"Yes?"**

 **She offers him the clipboard and a pen. "Sign here please."**

 **Confused, Jaune obliges and signs the paper on the clipboard. Once signed, the woman takes back the clipboard and pen before leaving Jaune with the kennel.**

 **With no idea why someone sent him a dog of all things, Jaune takes the kennel inside and places it on top of his coffee table. Noticing a letter on top of the kennel, he takes it and opens it to show a card in it, but stops when he sees a certain symbol on the front of the card.**

 **A Red Rose.**

 **Ruby's symbol.**

"I have a feeling this is going to get sappy real fast" sighed Roman, taking out a cigar from his coat. Before he can stuff it into his mouth, Neo elbows him into the ribs, having the criminal drop it. "Ow!"

 **With shaking hands, Jaune slowly opens the letter and begins to read, imagining what Ruby would sound like when making the letter.**

 **"Jaune, I'm sorry I can't be there for you, but you still need something, someone to love. So start with this, because the card doesn't count. I love you, Jaune. This illness has loomed over us for a long time and now that I found my peace, find yours. Until that day, your best friend, Ruby."**

 **Crying halfway through reading the letter, Jaune struggles to control his emotions, but manages to stop the tears from leaking. Sniffling, Jaune opens the cage to reveal a Corgi puppy. Taking the puppy out of the kennel, Jaune looks over the dog before noticing a collar around its neck. He fumbles with its name-tag and chuckles. "Zwei, of course." She always did like that name.**

"Uh~, what happened to all the fun action parts?" sighed Mercury, before crying out when Emerald slaps him across the back of his head. "Ow! Em, what did you do that... for...?" Mercury trails off when he sees Emerald sniffling with tears leaking down her cheeks. "Em?"

"Shut up, Mercury. Just... shut up" sniffled Emerald, trying, but failing in controlling her emotions. Emerald isn't the only one who's effected by the letter.

"When did my partner get so emotionally beautiful?" cried Weiss, wiping her tears with tissues that Spectre, thoughtfully conjures up for everyone who's crying.

"S-Shut up and hand me another tissue" bawled Ruby, reaching out for another tissue.

 **Two nights later, Jaune's woken up from his slumber after Zwei jumps off the bed while growling. Groggily, Jaune follows after Zwei, guessing that the dog just wants to go to the bathroom outside. For a puppy, Zwei is very smart.**

 **However, after he climbs down the stairs of his house, he sees a pair of figures standing in the shadows of his living room. Before he can do something, a metal bat connects to the back of his skull, knocking Jaune to the floor in pain. As Jaune grabs the back of his head in pain, one of the assailants turns on his lamp, lighting the living room and showing that the four assailants are covering their faces with masks and hoods. Jaune bends forward when one of his attackers kicks him in the stomach while another swings his metal back down on Jaune's arm.**

 **"Where are those fucking keys?" demanded one of assailants before kicking Jaune across the face, making him cry out in pain as blood leaks out from his nose and mouth.**

"Amateurs" scoffed Mercury.

"Attacking him when his back is turned. How disgraceful" remarked Glynda in disgust.

Qrow shrugs his shoulder, showing how little he cares. "There's no honour among thieves." Beside Qrow, Ironwood nods, although reluctantly. Not because he doesn't agree with Qrow, but because he dislikes the fact he's agreeing with Qrow in the first place.

 _"Why does that voice sound so familiar?"_ thought Weiss, trying to place where she has heard the attacker's voice before.

 **Jaune's vision gets blurry with the only noises he can hear are the sounds of someone smashing his furniture and Zwei's barking.**

 **"Shut that fucking dog up!"**

"Stay away from Zwei!" cried Ruby, watching in actual anger as one of Jaune's attackers chase after Zwei in the living room. Zwei has done nothing wrong!

 **Jaune can only watch in pain as one of his attackers grabs the struggling Zwei before punching the puppy, silencing it.**

Ruby cries out for her family's pet.

Weiss's perfect demeanor drops and she actually snarls at Jaune's assailants.

Beside Ruby, Yang's eyes turn blood red as her hair lights aflame, making the room slightly warmer from the heat of her Aura.

Blake glares at the four attackers in disgust. She has never liked Zwei, but the last thing she wants is for the dog to be killed. It's only worse because Zwei is actually a young puppy.

 **Jaune is kicked onto his back as one of the other assailants finds his car keys. As they begin to leave, one of the assailants hovers over Jaune's body, obviously grinning under that mask of his. Kneeling down and grabbing Jaune by his hair, the assailant pulls down his mask, revealing his identity to Jaune.**

 **Jaune recognizes the burnt orange hair and arrogant smirk. It's the same young man he met at the Dust station who wanted to buy his car off of him, even after he said no.**

"Cardin!" cried Team RWBY and NPR who immediately recognize the bully. They never thought they could hate the bully more than they already do but somehow, they manage to.

Cinder glances at Emerald who answers back. "Cardin Winchester, leader of Team CRDL. Average in both fighting skill and grades. Pyrrha Nikos defeated his team on her own during Combat Class."

"Ah~ yes, I remember now" nodded Cinder, having witnessed the _Invincible Girl_ defeat a team of boys rather easily in one of the Combat Classes. From what she can recall, the team had no teamwork whatsoever and lackluster skills at best.

"Amateur" scoffed Roman with Neo nodding beside him. "Only a suicidal fool would show their face to the person they just robbed."

 **"Sleep tight, bitch."**

 **The last thing Jaune sees before he blacks out is a fist.**

 **An hour later, Jaune wakes up from unconsciousness and the first thing he sees is Zwei's corpse lying beside him. From the blood trail, it's obvious that the puppy dragged itself to him before eventually dying from his wounds.**

 **Pushing himself up to a sitting position, Jaune carefully picks up Zwei and holds the puppy to his chest, trying to hold back the tears that threaten to leak out from his eyes.**

 **Half an hour later and while still covered in his own blood, Jaune buries Zwei in his garden. By the time he's finished, it's six o'clock in the morning.**

 **Entering his bedroom, Jaune turns off his ringing alarm clock and places Zwei's collar beside it. While he didn't have Zwei for long, he will always have something to remember him by.**

 **Still in his bloody clothing, Jaune starts to scrub off the blood from the floorboards in his living room. While scrubbing off the blood, Jaune's rage grows as he thinks back to last night's events.**

 **Four young punks broke into his home, beat him up, destroyed his furniture, stole his car and killed his dog.**

 **The first four he couldn't care less about, but it's the latter that has made Jaune really angry.**

 **They didn't just kill his dog.**

 **They took away the last gift his deceased wife gave him.**

 **They took away the last thing he had to remember Ruby by.**

 **Having forgotten his task, Jaune slowly looks up with the only emotion present in those blue eyes of his being pure rage.**

Ruby sniffles as she watches Jaune get angry. She can't help but find that very sweet and agrees wholeheartedly with what he's going to do next. She can tell by looking at him that he wants revenge and if she could, Ruby would jump through the screen and do so alongside with him.

Mercury can't help but get chills when she looks into the eyes of Jaune Arc. For some reason, he feels like this universe's version is a lot more different than the other ones. The only other person to make Mercury shiver like that is Cinder when she's mad, but somehow, it's even worse. _"He's dangerous. Very dangerous."_

Ozpin can relate to this universe's Jaune Arc. Back before they were at each other's throats, Ozpin and Salem loved each other very much and Ozpin believes that if he was in the same situation as Jaune, he would be angry as well. Angry enough to go after the men who have taken away everything, just as he's sure Jaune will do.

 **Driving his stolen car into one of his father's owned garages, Cardin laughs alongside his friends, Russel, Dove and Sky as he parks it inside, ignoring the various mechanics who are either fixing cars or tearing them apart for spare parts. "I think I'll keep this motherfucker" chuckled Cardin, walking over towards the man in charge of the garage. "Yo, Neptune! I want new numbers and clean papers."**

 **Neptune sighs before turning away from the engine he's looking over to see the annoyance that is Cardin Winchester. If not for him working for the boy's father, Neptune would have punched the smug bastard a long time ago. Glancing at the car that Cardin obviously stole, Neptune does a double take to make sure his eyes aren't playing tricks on him. Realizing that they're not, Neptune walks over towards Cardin, hoping that Cardin at least killed the owner of the car he just stole. "Where did you get that car?"**

Weiss perks up when she sees Neptune make an appearance. None of the other universes showed him so it's a pleasant surprise to see him, even though it looks like he isn't a good guy in this universe.

"Does Neptune look scared to any of you guys?" asked Nora, tilting her head curiously.

"It appears like he recognizes the car or rather, who actually owns it" remarked Qrow, rolling his eyes. "Obviously, there's more to the kid than we've seen so far."

 **After five seconds of Cardin not answering, Neptune asks again, but sterner "I asked you where the hell did you get it?"**

 **"Who gives a shit?" shrugged Cardin, obviously uncaring to Neptune's plight.**

 **"Alright, get out of my shop. Get out right now" ordered Neptune, walking away from the dead man walking. The last thing he wants is to be near Cardin who doesn't even realize what he has done.**

Neo looks very interested in where the conversation is going. From what it looks like, the Neptune character recognizes the car and who rightfully owns it. It also appears like he knows what will happen when the owner finds out. She guesses Jaune Arc must be pretty scary in this universe as well.

"Looks like our favourite little blonde has quite a reputation going" mentioned Roman, chuckling in excitement. Only one type of person gets such a fearful reputation in the criminal underworld.

Killers.

 **Neptune turns around and glares at Cardin. "The owner of the car, did you kill him or what?"**

 **"No, but we sure as hell fucked up his dog" chuckled Cardin.**

 **Neptune starts to chuckle in amusement as well. "Fucked up his dog, that's what you did?"**

 **"Yea" laughed Cardin.**

 **"That's crazy" sighed Neptune before punching Cardin across the face. As Cardin falls to the floor with a sore jaw, Russel steps forward and brings a gun to Neptune's head. "Look at you. You're gonna come to my shop and pull a gun on me. That's great man" he smirked.**

 **Dove steps to Russel's side and slowly lowers his friend's arm. As Cardin climbs back up to his feet with a bloody nose, Dove glares at the mechanic. "Viggo isn't going to like this."**

 **"You don't know what Viggo likes or doesn't like" spat Neptune, ignoring Cardin's curses. "But I'll tell him what he understands." With all said and done, Neptune walks back to the engine, knowing that he won't be able to concentrate on it anymore. How can he concentrate knowing that Jaune Arc will be coming to his garage later for information.**

 **Within the hour, Jaune Arc himself steps into Neptune's garage, much to the mechanic's expectation. Neptune is sitting on a stool beside one of his cars, drinking a glass of whiskey with another already waiting for Jaune.**

"Kid didn't even change his shirt" pointed out Qrow, having a hard time ignoring the blood stain on Jaune's white shirt.

"He either doesn't care or he believes that there's no time to lose. I'm guessing it to be the latter" answered Ironwood, studying this world version of Jaune Arc. While he doesn't walk or stand like a soldier, he doesn't walk like a civilian either. _"His steps are both silent and measured. Only one sort of people walks like that."_ Just from the way he walks, Ironwood figures out what type of man this universe's version of Jaune Arc is and it isn't good.

 **Ignoring the many frightened eyes watching him, Jaune steps forward and takes a seat in front of Neptune. "Is it here?"**

 **Nervously gulping down the whiskey, Neptune fills Jaune's own glass. "It was." From the cold stare in Jaune's blue eyes, Neptune can tell the blonde isn't too thrilled with his response. "Cardin Winchester nicked it."**

 **"Viggo's son" remarked Jaune, knowing the boy's father. After all, he use to work for the mob boss not too long ago. Does that deter him from killing Cardin? No, but it does mean that there's going to be an even bigger body pile than he expected.**

 **"What are you going to do?" asked the mechanic, although he has a very good idea on what Jaune Arc is going to do.**

 **Taking the glass of whiskey, Jaune downs the drink in one gulp before looking at Neptune. "I need a ride."**

"He's a man on a mission" smirked Yang, feeling no sympathy to Team CRDL in the alternate universe. Nobody hurts Zwei, no matter which universe they live in.

"I almost feel sorry for them" answered Blake. Yang looks at her partner. "I said almost."

"Kill them all." Surprisingly, Weiss is the one who says that, but her teammates can understand why. Zwei is one of the very few creatures on Remnant that has managed to warm Weiss's cold heart so seeing him die like that has obviously angered the Schnee heiress.

"They're taking this very personally" deadpanned Ren, sensing a lot of Killing Intent coming off of everyone in Team RWBY. Somehow, their team leader's killer intent is almost double the size of the others, even Yang's. That's a scary thought in itself.

 **Hours later, Neptune is doing some paperwork in his office when his TeleScroll starts to ring. Knowing who is calling him, Neptune takes a moment before answering. "Neptune speaking."**

 **Standing on the balcony of one of the many skyscrapers that litter Vale, Viggo Winchester looks out into the city while talking to Neptune on his Scroll. "I heard you struck my son."**

 **"Yes sir, I did."**

 **"Then may I ask why?"**

 **"Yea well, he stole Jaune Arc's car and... killed his dog."**

 **Slowly, Viggo turns around and a nervous expression appears on his face. Whatever excuse he was expecting from Neptune for hitting his son, he didn't expect that! Now, he doesn't blame Neptune for hitting Cardin, seeing as his son has just done something very stupid and he probably doesn't even know it. "Oh."**

"I can see the resemblance between him and Cardin" said Pyrrha, noting how Viggo has the same build as Cardin and the same hair colour, although his is starting to grey on the sides and unlike Cardin, he has the look of a man who has experienced many things in his life.

"I'm really interested on Jaune in this universe. What could he have done to get such a badass reputation?" said Nora, vibrating in excitement. "Maybe he broke someones legs?"

 _"I think he broke a lot than legs"_ thought Mercury, smirking in both amusement and excitement. Just as he has learned from watching the Soldier 76 version of Jaune, he hopes to learn more skills from this universe's Jaune Arc who is obviously a killer of sorts.

 **Two hours later, a smirking Cardin enters his father's suite, feeling very happy about getting his job done, as well as getting a new car. He'll be even more happy to hear about Neptune's punishment from his father's own mouth. Walking into the main room, Cardin sees his father standing behind his private bar while his second-in-command, Avi leans against the bar.**

 **"How's your trip, kid?" asked Avi with a smile.**

 **"We won't be hearing from them anytime soon. Or ever" stated Cardin, having eliminated an upcoming gang that tried to stretch their authority into Winchester's own.**

"So they're a mob?" asked Qrow, quirking a brow. "I guess I can see why the kid's so cocky." Being a Huntsman, he has wiped out a few criminal gangs in his life so he knows the types. Smart, devious, but also arrogant. That arrogance of theirs is what usually fucks them up in the end.

"He's always cocky. He's just an arrogant thug in this universe" stated Blake, narrowing her eyes in distaste for Cardin. While he has stopped his bullying on Jaune, that doesn't mean Cardin has changed his ways and stopped his racist acts against Faunus.

Yang whistles over her partner's obvious disdain for Cardin, although she doesn't blame her. Cardin isn't exactly someone who anyone can get along with.

 **Preparing two glasses of vodka, Viggo steps up towards Cardin, making his son take a step back in nervousness when he notices his father's stern expression. Stopping, Viggo offers his son a glass before turning around to place his own back on the bar. As Viggo walks back towards Cardin who has already drank all the vodka, he looks at Cardin's jacket. "That's a nice jacket."**

 **"Thanks."**

 **"Yea" nodded Viggo, placing one hand on Cardin's shoulder while looking over his shoulder at Avi. All of a sudden, Viggo digs his other fist into his son's stomach, making Cardin collapse to the floor and puke out the vodka he just drank.**

 **Grabbing a cloth from the bar, Viggo throws it at his puking son. "Clean it up."**

 **While confused and in a lot of pain, Cardin does as he's told and wipes away this vomit.**

 **"Should I go?" asked Avi, finding the sudden change of demeanor in his boss uncomfortable. He doesn't want to be in the same room when Viggo is obviously pissed with his son.**

 **"Stay" ordered Viggo, taking off his own jacket.**

"That's a bit... harsh" said Ren, wincing from the punch. Such a punch wouldn't have winded his own universe's version of Cardin, but unlike him, this universe doesn't appear to have Aura.

"Oh~, Cardin messed up big time" giggled Nora, showing no sympathy for Cardin. "Jaune-Jaune is gonna break some legs~."

"Fortunately, I think Nora might be right" sighed Weiss. From what she can tell, Viggo Winchester is a powerful mob boss who has wealth and connections so it shouldn't take one man being wronged to scare him so much. Yet, knowing his son has wronged Jaune of all people has made him both angry and scared, meaning that Jaune is someone that even makes mob bosses scared.

 **"W-What d-did I do?" asked Cardin, still on his knees, cleaning his puke.**

 **"You fucked up" answered Viggo, rolling up his sleeves.**

 **"We did what you asked. No one saw shit" exclaimed Caridn, having no idea why his father is angry at him.**

 **Rolling his eyes, Viggo grabs his son and pulls him back up to his feet. "I'm not talking about Vacuo."**

 **"What then?" asked a sniffling Cardin. "You mean Neptune's? So I stole the fucking car!"**

 **That's obviously not the right thing to say because Viggo punches Cardin in the stomach again, making Cardin fall to the floor once more.**

 **"What the fuck, Viggo" said Avi, wanting to step out of the room.**

 **Viggo points at his second-in-command. "You stay" he ordered, having Avi sigh and remain where he is beside the bar.**

"I gotta say, I'm enjoying watching Cardin get his ass kicked" grinned Yang.

"Me too" Nora answered, grinning as well.

Pyrrha doesn't answer, but inwardly agrees with the two powerhouses. While usually kind to everyone, Pyrrha can't forget how Cardin bullied Jaune in the beginning of their first year.

 **Putting his jacket back on and preparing a drink, both Cardin and Avi wait for Viggo to explain his anger.**

 **After preparing himself a strong drink, Viggo decides to ease both their curiosities. "It's not what you did, son that angers me so. It's who you did it to" he sighed.**

 **Cardin looks at his father from the floor in confusion. "Who? That fucking nobody?"**

 **Viggo looks down at his son with the most serious expression Cardin has ever seen on his face. "That. Fucking. Nobody. Is Jaune Arc."**

 **Unknown to the Winchesters, Jaune is walking down to his basement with a sledgehammer in his hand.**

Roman leans forward on his seat, looking very interested on watching the next few moments. "Now I'm interested." From the way Viggo speaks of Jaune Arc, he's a man to be much feared.

Neo grins as well, feeling her body shiver in excitement. Not even Roman has the type of reputation Jaune has in this universe, which means he isn't a simple thief. He's something a lot more dangerous and the thought of what he is brings a pleasurable shiver down her spine.

 **"He was once an associate of ours" explained Viggo after taking a sip of his drink. "We call him, Baba Yaga."**

"Booba whatsa?" asked Nora, making Yang and Qrow snort.

"It's Mistralian" answered Pyrrha, being fluent in her own Kingdom's language. "It means bogeyman."

 **Cardin pushes himself to his feet, having recovered form his father's blows. "Bogeyman?"**

 **"Well, Jaune wasn't exactly the Bogeyman" explained Viggo, looking very serious.**

 **In his basement, Jaune throws the carpet aside and positions his sledgehammer in the centre of the floor.**

 **"He was the one you sent to** _ **kill**_ **the fucking Bogeyman."**

Mercury hums, looking forward to see how good of a killer this world's Jaune is.

"Vomit Boy has got some skills in this universe" whistled Yang, knowing that he must be good if he's earned himself a title like that.

"It appears like Mr. Arc is someone to be feared in this universe" said Ozpin, waiting to see Jaune's skills firsthand. So far, all he knows of Jaune in this universe is that he's likely a killer and a very good one at that, if everyone's reaction to Cardin's actions are anything to guess by.

 **Reeling the sledgehammer back, Jaune swings it and slams it down on the floor, cracking the concrete it's made from.**

 **Cardin gulps, starting to see the situation he put himself in. "Oh."**

 **"Jaune is a man of focus" said Viggo, stepping forward towards his son. "Commitment. Sheer will." Viggo glares down at his son. "Something you know very little about."**

 **In his basement, Jaune continues to hit his sledgehammer against his basement floor, damaging the floor for every hit he makes.**

 **"I once saw him kill three men in a bar..."**

Mercury quirks a brow in little interest. "Is that it?" he asked, looking very unimpressed. He can kill three men in any bar without breaking a sweat.

 **"... with a pencil."**

"Oh" muttered Mercury, looking very impressed now. None of his father's lessons ever taught him how to kill a man with a pencil of all things, let alone how to use it to kill three of them.

 **"With a fucking pencil!"**

 **In his basement, Jaune shouts in both rage and grief as he thinks of Ruby and the last gift she gave him to help with the grief of losing her. She has always worried for the well being of others, even at the cost of her own health. That's one of the many reasons why he loves her so much. So knowing that the arrogant kid is still walking around after killing Ruby's final gift to him only angers him more and with his rage and grief increasing, so does his strength as he continues to pummel the concrete floor.**

Ruby can feel tears leak from her eyes as she watches Jaune cry out in pain of her death. She wishes she can walk through the screen and comfort him, but all she can do is clench her fists and clinch her teeth, trying to ignore his painful cries.

 **Viggo walks back behind the bar and serves himself another drink. "Suddenly one day, he asked to leave. Over a woman of course" continued Viggo.**

 **Jaune throws his sledgehammer aside and starts to dig through the rubble of what use to be his basement floor.**

 **"So I made a deal with him. I gave him an impossible task. A job no one could have pulled off." Viggo takes a deep sip of his drink. "The bodies he buried that day laid a foundation of what we are now."**

 **Jaune brushes the rubble and dust away, seeing the box he buried all those years ago. He did so to prove to himself that he would no longer enter** _ **that world.**_

"So they're only as powerful as they are now because of Jaune?" asked Blake.

"He likely sent Jaune to kill powerful competitors of his" explained Weiss, knowing that it's something she would do if she was in Viggo's position. If she was gonna risk losing one of her most valuable assets, she would want something of similar value in exchange. "He likely thought Jaune wouldn't be capable of doing it so he would stay as an ally of his. Jaune actually completing his job probably surprised him more than anyone else."

 **Viggo steps to face his son once again. "And then, my son. A few days after his wife died, you steal his car and kill his fucking dog" exclaimed Viggo, turning away, but Cardin stops him.**

 **"Father, I can make this right?" spoke Cardin, stepping forward.**

 **"Oh? How do you plan that?" asked Viggo, obviously not believing his son has an actual plan. He highly doubts his son can even comprehend who he has actually pissed off, even after explaining everything about Jaune Arc to him.**

 **"By finishing what I started."**

 **This only angers Viggo who turns to his second-in-command. "Did he not hear a word I said?"**

 **"Dad, I can do this! Please!" pleaded Cardin, but Viggo does something that surprises, but also horrified the young man.**

 **Viggo hugs his son.**

 **"Jaune will come for you" Viggo said into his son's ear. "And you will do nothing because you can do nothing. So get the fuck out of my sight" he ordered, pushing Cardin away who then runs out of the room, leaving Viggo alone with his second-in-command.**

Many in the audience are shocked of Viggo's actions, especially the younger people in the audience.

"Did he just..." muttered Ren in shocked horror.

"He did" nodded Pyrrha in similar horror.

"That hug... it was like he was hugging his son goodbye" said Blake, having felt a chill crawl up her spine once she understood Viggo's reasons. _"How scary is Jaune in this universe?"_

Qrow shakes his head. "I wouldn't mind seeing if the kid's skills are as good as the rumors make him out to be."

Glynda won't admit it, but she's a bit curious as well. Viggo is obviously a powerful man with money, men and connections. Yet, Jaune's reputation is so great that none of that even matters, likely believing that Jaune will get Cardin, no matter what. _"He's only one man. How dangerous can he truly be?"_

 **Jaune opens the box he buried all those years ago, revealing his weapons on one side and a pile of gold coins on the other.**

 **At the same time, Viggo opens his safe in the wall to retrieve his contact book which holds the names and TeleScroll numbers of every one of his clients and associates, including former ones. After finding the page with Jaune Arc's number, he calls, hoping to sort the whole mess out before it gets out of hand.**

 **Jaune looks to the right to see his TeleScroll ringing. Unlike his regular Scroll, that TeleScroll is only used for people who has his** _ **work**_ **number. Knowing who it is, he walks over and answers the TeleScroll, placing it to his ear.**

 **"Hello Jaune. I heard about your wife. Sorry, my condolences" said Viggo, waiting for Jaune to speak. Realizing he isn't going to, Viggo decides to continue. "It's um.. seemed to be faith or hazardous just bad fucking luck that caused our paths to cross once again... Jaune?" he spoke, swallowing a pile of saliva in his throat when Jaune doesn't speak. "Let us not resort to our baser instincts and handle this like civilized men and move o-" Viggo stops when he hears the call disconnect from the other side.**

 **Placing his Scroll on the table, Viggo leans on it as he tries to come to terms with his current situation.**

 **"What did he say?" asked Avi from his position on one of the two couches.**

 **"Enough."**

 **"Oh God" muttered Avi, realizing that they are now the target of Jaune fucking Arc. If it was any other assassin, they'd have nothing to worry about but Jaune Arc is a legend.**

 **Gathering his wits, Viggo turns to his second-in-command. "Task a crew."**

 **Actually surprised, but not one to ignore his boss's orders, he nods. "How many?"**

 **"How many do you have?"**

"He wants to task a crew?" wondered Nora, failing to realize what the mob boss means.

"By crew, he means a hit squad" piped in Mercury, looking forward to see how Jaune Arc reacts to the assassination attempt.

"Hit squad?" repeated Nora, tilting her head with the same goofy smile on her face.

Ren decides to be blunt with his partner. "He means Viggo is sending a team of people of assassinate Jaune."

Ten seconds pass as Nora blinks before she jumps out of her seat. "WHAT!" Nora's next intention is to pull her chair out of the floor and throw it at the screen, but with a flick of Spectre's hand, Nora appears back on her seat with chains wrapped around her to keep her in place. "Let me go! They're going to kill Jaune-Jaune."

"I'll let you go once you've calmed down. Until then, you can remain restrained" told Spectre before everyone returns their attention to the screen, ignoring how Nora is struggling to escape her restraints.

 **Knowing that he'll be expecting guests, Jaune decides to take a shower and prepare for their arrival.**

"Just a little lower" whispered Yang, seeing only Jaune's upper body as he takes a shower.

Mercury whistles in appreciation of the tattoo on the blonde's back which depicts a pair of hands together like as if the owner is praying while in the background, there is a glowing cross. Over the tattoo is a line of words in another language. "That's a sweet tattoo."

"What do the words say?" asked Emerald, having no clue on what the words mean.

Mercury shrugs, having no idea either. "Do I look like someone who's fluent in languages?"

"It's Mistralian" said Pyrrha, being fluent in the language since she lives there. "It means _**Fortune Favors the Bold.**_ "

 **After finishing his shower, Jaune gets dressed in his favoured attire of a black suit, dress shirt, tie and shoes. While Jaune straightens out his suit in front of his mirror, Viggo is sitting in front of an open fireplace with a glass of wine while singing an old tale song.**

 **"Hurry fall asleep or** _ **The Bogeyman**_ **will come for you."**

 **From outside Jaune's house, Viggo's squad of assassins are slowly trailing up towards the house. Each one is dressed exactly the same, adorning a black suit, white dress shirt, bulletproof vest and a black mask.**

 **"From the swamp he will come..." Viggo leans forward and stares deeply into the fire. "...and** _ **TAKE**_ **the children that don't behave."**

 **The assassins slowly make their way inside Jaune's home, ignoring the fact that the doors have been left unlocked for them. As they look around the house for their target, Viggo can be found smiling a sad smile.**

 **"The Boogeyman" he finished, knowing that the men he sent to kill Jaune Arc are most likely dead and if not, they'll be dead soon enough. Still at least he can say he tried to do something to protect his son.**

 **As three of the assassins look around for their target in the second floor, none of them notice the figure hiding in the shadows before it's too late.**

 **Like a phantom, Jaune steps out of the shadows and fires a bullet into the first assassin's head with his pistol. Before the corpse can fall to the floor, Jaune has already shot the second assassin in the foot while grabbing his swinging arm and shooting the third the stomach before he can fire back. After shooting the second assassin in the chest and once in the face, Jaune turns and guns down the third assassin without mercy.**

 **Seeing another assassin on the bottom floor, Jaune drops to his knees and shoot him in the forehead. Looking to his right, Jaune runs as another assassin fires at him from the bottom floor and jumps over the staircase before turning around to shoot the firing assassin in the leg. The assassin cries out in pain as he slides across the floor before Jaune places another bullet in his head.**

"Kid's not messing around" whistled Qrow, appreciating Jaune's skills with a gun. Kid has some serious accuracy with that pistol of his.

Raven smirks, enjoying the sight of Jaune tearing his enemies apart. He isn't impossibly strong like the Lion's Sin of Pride Jaune or have the ferocity of the Snow Leopard Faunus Jaune, but she can see why he has earned his reputation.

"It's like watching an action movie!" cried out Nora with a wide grin, enjoying the violence.

Weiss rolls her eyes. "Yes, just that the blood and killing is real."

"You'd think they'd bring better guns if they wanted to kill Jaune" said Ruby, ignoring Weiss's sarcasm and wondering why the assassins only brought pistols with silencers on them. Wouldn't it be more efficient if they had better weapons or maybe even explosives to blow up the house altogether?

"They want to kill their target as quickly and quietly as possible" informed Mercury, knowing exactly what the team of assassins are trying to do.

"Too bad Jaune doesn't seem to care about being quiet" deadpanned Blake as she watches Jaune shoot assassin after assassin. Unlike the team of killers after his head, Jaune isn't using a silencer for his pistol, but she isn't sure if he's using that to his disadvantage or for his benefit.

 **Having reloaded his weapon, Jaune uses the reflection off a nearby window to watch two more assassins slowly make their way towards himself as he hides at the end of a bookshelf. Once they're close enough, he steps out of cover and shoots the closest one in the chest. As the assassin stumbles back as his vest absorbs the blow, Jaune jumps and latches onto him, using his weight to drop the man to the floor while at the same time, shooting the second assassin from the other side of the bookshelf.**

 **Standing up, Jaune shoots the man below him in the head before firing at another nearby assassin who dives behind a wall. Jaune takes cover on the other side of the same wall with both killers waiting for their opponent to make the first move. Seconds pass by before both men move at the same time. The assassin turns and fires into the wall, hoping to hit his target on the other side. However, Jaune has already anticipated that and crouches to the floor while also shooting at the wall. While the assassin misses his target, Jaune manages to shoot the assassin in the chest twice.**

 **The assassin catches himself before he can hit the floor and tries to shoot at his target, but Jaune grabs his arm to aim the gun away from himself and smacks the assassin across the side of his face with the butt of his pistol. Dropping backwards to the floor, Jaune uses his momentum to swings the assassin over him and through the glass window behind him. Quickly standing back up, Jaune reloads and fires a bullet into the assassin's head, just to make sure he's dead. Many amateurs have lost their lives after failing to make sure their enemies are truly dead.**

 **Stepping into the kitchen, Jaune steps back as another assassin walks around the corner before he grapples with Jaune, trying to shoot him with his gun. As Jaune fights off the assassin, another one comes running around the corner, but Jaune quickly lodges a bullet into his chest before returning with his grappling match.**

 **Managing to disarm him, Jaune lifts the assassin onto his shoulders and drops him on the kitchen table. Before the assassin can get himself off, Jaune punches him in the throat, causing the assassin to cough and struggle for breath.**

 **Looking around for his gun, Jaune notices it lying a foot away from him, as well as the assassin he shot before running towards it. Managing to kick it away, Jaune begins a close combat fight with the man with each throwing blows and blocks before Jaune gets the upper hand and throwing the man over his shoulder. Once he's down, Jaune returns to the assassin on his kitchen table and drags him so that his head is the only thing not lying on it. Jaune lifts up his arm and drops it on the man's head which causes his neck to break, killing him instantly.**

 **A second later, the second assassin swings at Jaune with a kitchen knife and he barely dodges the sharp blade in time. Grabbing the assassin's arm after the second swing, the men drag themselves into the hallway with both attempting to overpower the other.**

 **Jaune overcomes the assassin by kicking his feet ouy from under him, giving Jaune the leverage of being on top. After trying to stab the assassin in the chest with his blade, Jaune pulls the masked man onto his back while pushing down on the knife. However, the assassin continues to struggle and push back against Jaune. Growing tired, Jaune hurries up the process by punching down at the knife which has it stab into the assassin ever so slightly. It's only when Jaune punches the knife down the third time does it stab down fully into the masked assassin, killing him.**

"He's... very efficient" stated Roman, actually surprised to see such brutality when fighting. Unlike Neo who likes to toy with her victims, this universe's version of Jaune Arc made sure to kill his assassins quickly and efficiently. Not one of his moves were wasted and unlike the many fools Roman has to work with nowadays, this Jaune can predict his opponents next moves perfectly. It's actually quite impressive to watch.

Speaking of Neo, her grin has grown very wide across her face as a small blush slowly graces her cheeks.

"Even after all of that, he could still go out with that suit."

"Yang! We just saw Arc kill a lot of people and you're thinking about his suit" yelled Weiss, scandalized over Yang's brash comment.

"But it's true. He doesn't have a speck of blood or dust on it" stated Yang, pointing at Jaune in the screen.

Blake shakes her head. "I don't think she cares, Yang."

 **Taking a deep breath, Jaune looks up at his front door when he hears the doorbell ring. Not bothering to hide the body, Jaune slowly walks up towards the door, hiding his gun behind his back. Opening it, Jaune sees a familiar police officer standing in front of him.**

 **"Evening Jaune" greeted the police officer.**

 **"Evening Jimmy" Jaune greeted back. "Noise complaint?"**

 **Jimmy slowly nods with a knowing look in his eyes. "Noise complaint" he confirmed. Noticing the dead body in the hallway, the police officer slowly takes his officer hat off. "You, uh.. working again?"**

 **"No, I'm just sorting some stuff out" stated Jaune.**

 **Nodding in understanding, Jimmy places his hat back on. "I'll leave you be then. Goodnight, Jaune."**

 **Jaune nods at the retreating police officer. "Goodnight, Jimmy."**

 **The screen fades as Jaune closes the door and looks at the corpse in his hallway.**

Glynda blinks in surprise over the officer ignoring the dead body in Jaune's house. "He ignored the corpse in the house?"

Ozpin takes a sip from his coffee mug and sighs. "It seems like we are only now understanding the true skill of Mr. Arc."

James slowly nods, although it's obvious he is as shocked as Glynda. "If the police aren't willing to do anything against him, that must be a testament to his skills."

"We should get Jaune a suit" stated Pyrrha, ignoring the knowing smirk on Nora's face and the surprised one on Ren's. "For his own benefit, of course."

"And get him to grow a beard!" exclaimed Yang, having quite liked the well groomed and hardened Jaune in this universe. She wouldn't mind having someone who can kick ass and look good doing it alongside with her.

Pyrrha nods in agreement. "And have him grow a beard."

Roman pushes himself off his chair and stretches his arms upward. "Well, I guess I'll take a turn" he declared, walking to the shelves on his left and ignoring Team RWBY's glares. Humming to himself whole looking over the crystals, Roman decides to snatch a violet crystal. "Here ya go" he said, tossing the crystal to Spectre who levitates the crystal into the screen.

 **xXx**

 **Next time...**

 **"This set of armour which was used to seal in my immeasurable, irresistible power has now been broken."**

 **"Ok."**


End file.
